No Space for Malathion Cowboys : Government: At the local level, officials must listen to the governed. What they are saying in Pasadena is “do something about the spraying.”

From our vantage point, 700 feet above the end of the Pasadena Freeway, we waited tensely, watching as the six sets of lights made an ominous arc in the dark sky and swept toward us.

“I think this pass is going to put them in violation,” warned Lt. Terry Blumenthal, the veteran police pilot at the controls of Pasadena’s Jet Ranger helicopter.

As the state’s chopper squadron dumped its trailing wake of malathion bait over the southern tip of Pasadena, Blumenthal radioed the lead pilot on the other side, asking him to cease and desist.

The pilot acknowledged the transmission--and refused to turn back.

Thus the state persists in dousing hundreds of square miles of Southern California neighborhoods, where millions of residents make their homes. Like the lawsuits and resolutions of scores of infuriated local governments, our Pasadena ordinance was brushed aside by implacable state officials who insist that their emergency powers to combat the Mediterranean fruit fly override everything in their flight path.

But our aerial rendezvous with the state’s choppers was more than just a confrontation between two levels of government. It also represents a stark contrast between two means of governing.

Prof. Warren Bennis of USC, a nationally recognized authority on modern leadership, talks about the John Wayne style of his youth. Bennis wistfully recalls the movie scene where Wayne stands in front of a thousand dismounted men and their horses. “Saddle up,” is all the Duke says. They do, and ride forward to glory with Wayne in the lead.

Another “Duke,” our lame-duck Gov. George Deukmejian, seems to inhabit that celluloid world as he prepares to ride into the sunset next year. His airborne cowboys symbolize an obsolete leadership style, no longer appropriate in California’s diverse, changing environment.

We operate differently in local government. We have no other choice. Members of city councils and trustees of school boards quickly learn that in our world, the only effective way to govern is to enlist the support, trust and participation of the people who put us in office.

We can’t insulate ourselves from public outrage. Our home telephone numbers are listed in the local directories. Constituents corner us in line at the supermarkets. Walking the dog becomes a daily barometer of customer satisfaction.

These challenges don’t absolve us from the tough responsibilities of leadership. We can’t duck hard choices. We have to ask people to make sacrifices. Our state isn’t the only level of government that has to respond to emergencies--from earthquakes to the epidemics of AIDS, homelessness and crack cocaine.

Examine the record: Over the past decade, local governments in California have displayed more courage, achieved more results and earned a higher level of trust than have our governor and legislators in Sacramento. We in the trenches couldn’t stall the state’s problems while they played politics, deadlocked in governmental stalemate.

We earned our record with a style of leadership that persuades instead of commands. In Pasadena, we worked our way out of the fiscal wreckage of Proposition 13, not only rescuing a nearly bankrupt pension fund but repairing our collapsing public infrastructure. We couldn’t wait for a bailout from Sacramento that never came. We couldn’t have solved our problems without the active enlistment of our citizenry. We had to earn their trust and secure their help.

That’s what’s missing from the state’s macho Medfly war. Sure, it’s hard to communicate effectively with a diverse population about the critical importance of the fruit and vegetable quarantine. We agree that it’s cumbersome and expensive to use ground spraying instead of aerial bombardment. We agree that it’s tough in an era of limited resources to be prepared with sufficient sterile Medfly capacity to meet current contingencies. Yeah, it ain’t easy. But we can’t make excuses at the local level. We have to get the job done without alienating our constituents. And in Pasadena, the elected officials do it for 50 bucks a week, a salary that hasn’t been raised since 1968.

The state insists that it will ignore Pasadena and our impertinent ordinance. But it can’t ignore the responsibilities of leadership in a new era. Earning the consent of the governed takes more time. It sometimes is more expensive. It definitely takes more courage. But come on, Gov. Deukmejian. We aren’t asking you to do anything more than what citizens demand of us. If you can’t take the heat, stay out of our airspace.