Move to Tune Out Mayor Put on Hold : Politics: The Long Beach City Council sidesteps an attempt to bar Ernie Kell from hosting a cable TV program while running for office.

The City Council has declined to get involved in a political dispute between Mayor Ernie Kell and one of his challengers, Councilman Tom Clark, over Kell’s regular appearances on a publicly funded cable television program.

Clark asked the council this week to bar local elected officials such as Kell from appearing on special programming on the city’s Channel 21 while they are running for office.

“I think this is wrong,” Clark said, referring to Kell’s regular appearance on “Keys to the City,” a local public-affairs program that Kell hosts. “It’s unfair to other candidates.”

Council members, saying the middle of a campaign was not the time to deal with the matter, shelved Clark’s request while indicating that the matter would be taken up later when a council committee considers various campaign reform proposals.

Kell argued that his appearance on the show has been deemed legal by the city attorney and the state Fair Political Practices Commission, that, as mayor, it is legitimate for him to host a show dealing with city problems, and that Clark’s charges are purely political.

“Keys to the City” is taped monthly and is shown six days a week on the city channel. The city pays for the show’s $192,000-a-year production costs with money derived from franchise fees paid by Simmons Cable.

City Atty. John Calhoun quoted letters from the State Fair Political Practices Commission concluding that such publicly funded broadcasting does not violate Proposition 73, the state campaign reform initiative that bars politicians from sending their constituents publicly funded mass mailings, such as newsletters.

But Clark, in a letter to his council colleagues, insisted that the broadcasts violated the spirit of Proposition 73, if not the letter.

Councilwoman Jan Hall agreed. “I do feel the expenditure of public monies during a campaign time is inappropriate and not what the voters voted for.”

Indeed, Hall pointed out that the mayor of Norwalk, Grace Napolitano, stopped appearing on a similar public affairs show aired in her city after she filed for reelection to the Norwalk City Council.

In other campaign matters, Clark and Kell appeared with the six other mayoral hopefuls at a candidates forum sponsored by the Long Beach Junior Chamber of Commerce Monday night.

Clark attacked Kell’s leadership during his two years as the city’s full-time mayor, asserting that Kell had done little on a variety of key city issues, ranging from police labor negotiations to the Harbor Commission’s decision to spend about $1 million renovating its board room.

“Real leadership would not sit by idly while business opportunities leave Long Beach, such as the auto mall. Real leadership would not allow the police negotiations to go on for nine months,” Clark declared.

“Real leadership is telling the Harbor Commission that our citizens don’t want them to spend $1.2 million on their board room.”

Kell pointed to the establishment of the Offices of Education and Neighborhood and Historic Preservation as accomplishments of his first term, characterized crime as the city’s leading problem and reiterated his opposition to airport expansion.

Touching two issues on which he has frequently been criticized for inaction, Kell also mentioned the homeless and the shortage of low-cost housing as serious local problems, but he did not elaborate on what should be done about them.

Other candidates on the April 10 ballot offered their versions of the city’s ills and cures.

David E. Kaye argued that traffic congestion could be reduced if only the city would narrow its wide sidewalks. Joe F. Wise advocated less government and lower taxes.

Daniel Rosenberg complained that the city’s leaders are beholden to the wealthy developers and businessmen who finance their campaigns. He decried the ballot proposal to create a $7-million-a-year property tax levy to hire 75 more police officers as a “fiscal fiasco.” Rosenberg said 160 additional officers are needed, but they should be paid for from the general fund, since they provide a basic city service.

Write-in candidate Jim Wade condemned the city’s treatment of the police union, while Lou Robillard maintained that crime would greatly decrease if criminals were shipped to the desert and kept there to build their own prisons.

Perennial candidate Thomas (Ski) Demski, grasping his signature miniature American flag, closed his comments with an off-key song.

“So vote for Skiiii Demski, Skiiii. Just vote for me.

“There’s no deals in this campaign. Vote for Skiiii Demski, Skiiii. . . .”