Ballot Drive Seeks 2-Term Limit on City Officeholders : Politics: Discontent with government forges grass-roots alliance. Effort would require the signatures of nearly 205,000 registered voters.

From East Los Angeles to the harbor area to the far stretches of the San Fernando Valley, residents unhappy with city government are mounting an unprecedented campaign to change the cast of characters at Los Angeles City Hall by limiting elected officials to two consecutive terms.

The grass-roots group, which began meeting this summer, started circulating petitions this weekend for a proposed Charter amendment that would change the face of city politics by opening City Hall to scores of newcomers. If successful, the petition drive would be the largest in city history, requiring the signatures of nearly 205,000 registered voters.

Under the amendment, elected officials, who currently have no limits on their terms, could serve two four-year terms in a row, but would be required to sit out at least one term before running again for the same office.

Mayor Tom Bradley, City Atty. James K. Hahn, Controller Rick Tuttle and 12 of the 15 City Council members would be blocked from running for reelection if the measure were approved by voters. Only Council members Richard Alatorre, Ruth Galanter and Nate Holden, who are serving their first full terms, could run again without waiting a term.

The campaign, called L.A. City 2-Term Limit, brings together community leaders, unsuccessful council candidates and neighborhood activists from a melting pot of social and economic groups throughout the city. Organizers say it reflects a deeply rooted dissatisfaction with the performance of the city’s elected officials and a belief that longevity in office breeds apathy and corruption.

The campaign includes East Los Angeles residents upset about poor city services, Valley and Westside homeowners opposed to rapid growth, Hollywood tenants afraid of losing their homes to redevelopment, and hillside environmentalists threatened by congestion and urban sprawl.

The effort got its start among a handful of residents who met in a small Boyle Heights community church in July to thrash out the idea. They were soon joined by Hollywood residents, who had also been considering the idea. By September, meetings were drawing representatives from every corner of the city. The group recently rented an office in Sun Valley as its headquarters.

“We have had a lot of cross-pollination,” said David Diaz, head of the El Sereno Neighborhood Action Committee and an author of the amendment. “For this initiative to work, it is going to take networking citywide.”

Laura Lake, president of Friends of Westwood and an unsuccessful City Council candidate in April, said the campaign reunites a citywide coalition that first formed two years ago to defeat plans for a trash-to-energy incineration plant in South-Central Los Angeles.

Organizers say they have the support of more than 50 community organizations--ranging from the League of Conservation Voters to the East Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce--and expect to pick up scores of other endorsements now that the petition drive has begun. Fund-raising has been less spirited, with the group collecting only “several thousand dollars” toward its $500,000 goal.

Interest in the initiative has been fueled in large part by what many residents perceive as the arrogance of city officials, organizers say. Residents complain about council members ignoring them during public hearings at City Hall, or dismissing their concerns and catering instead to special interests and contributors.

“People want respect and they are not getting it,” said Barbara Blinderman, a land-use attorney and president of the residents’ group Mulholland Tomorrow.

The movement comes at a time when term limits are being considered elsewhere as a means of campaign reform. Atty. Gen. John K. Van de Kamp has proposed an ethics package that would limit statewide officeholders to eight years and members of the Legislature to 12 years.

In San Francisco, where a previous two-term initiative failed, residents are gathering signatures for another attempt, and groups in Inglewood and Santa Monica are also pushing for limits in their cities. The commission set up by Bradley to draft a new ethics code in Los Angeles is expected to recommend later this month that term limits be studied as part of a comprehensive review of the City Charter.

Four-term incumbent Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky predicted the two-term effort will fail. “I don’t think they have demonstrated the capability to organize a citywide initiative drive,” said Yaroslavsky, who opposes any term limits.

But Herbert E. Alexander, a USC political science professor who also opposes term limits, said publicity about Bradley’s ongoing financial problems could give the campaign an advantage.

“I imagine a lot of people in the wake of the Bradley case will say he has been in office too long, he got arrogant in power, and that leads to the kind of failures that he exhibited,” Alexander said. “I suspect it won’t be hard to get sufficient signatures to get it on the ballot.”

The campaign, which officially began Friday when the group published its petition, has been shunned by the political establishment at City Hall. Four-term Councilwoman Joy Picus, who has publicly called for term limits in the past, said the two-term proposal is too restrictive. Yaroslavsky dismissed its organizers as a group of “primarily failed candidates who couldn’t win elections on their own and are now trying to change the rules.”

Lake, who ran against Yaroslavsky in April, said the campaign did not originate among former council candidates. “This is coming from the bottom up,” Lake said.

Bradley, now in his fifth consecutive term as mayor, said through a spokesman that he would not comment on the initiative.

As a councilman, Bradley made a similar proposal in 1973 that would have limited mayors to two terms. His proposal never was enacted, but two years later during his first term as mayor, he told the council he had “no intention” of serving more than two terms.

Even if the ballot measure is successful, some question whether such limits are even legal in California. A court in San Francisco recently ruled that general-law cities--those without charters--cannot impose term limits, but the ability of charter cities such as Los Angeles to restrict terms has never been determined by the courts.

The issue could eventually be resolved, if pending legal battles in two suburban Los Angeles charter cities wind up in court. A former Redondo Beach councilman who was forced to retire this year because of a two-term limit in that city says he will challenge the law, and a similar restriction in Cerritos is expected to pit two incumbents there who want to seek third terms against a citizens’ group that says they cannot.

“The situation in Los Angeles is critical right now,” said Robert Nudelman, a Hollywood activist and initiative supporter. “The drugs, the gangs, the crime, the traffic, the pollution--we can’t wait any longer.”