‘No Thanks,’ Candidates Reply to Union : Politics: Recipients of an endorsement by a Carpenters Union local say it is an unwelcome outside influence in a Culver City election.

Two weeks before the City Council election, the first sign of outside influence has seeped into Culver City, a community that prides itself on its independence and its small-town ways in the midst of a busy urban area.

The two council candidates who stood to benefit criticized the intrusion, in the form of an endorsement letter by a Carpenters Union local.

The letter, sent March 23 by Carpenters Local Union No. 409 to at least one union member who lives in Culver City, backs Mayor Jozelle Smith and candidate Mike Balkman, whose election is “necessary if there is to be a future for Marina Place,” the controversial regional shopping mall at the city’s western edge.

Smith and Balkman both favor the $159-million project, which the letter said would create an “overwhelming” number of construction jobs while it is being built, and many permanent service jobs once the mall is functioning. “A development like this definitely deserves our assistance,” the letter said.

The third candidate in the race for the two council seats is Tom Hammons, who says he opposes the size of the mall. If he wins election by finishing either first or second on April 10, it would tip the balance on the City Council against the project.

Both Smith and Balkman said this week they had no prior knowledge of the letter and did not solicit the union’s support.

“I’m totally flabbergasted by it,” said Balkman, the president of an electrical contracting company. An added irony, he said, is that “I’m a non-union contractor.”

Smith said she will write to the union asking for a retraction, saying she opposes the “outside influence.” Two years ago, Smith noted, she criticized Assemblywoman Gwen Moore (D-Los Angeles) for getting involved in Culver City’s municipal elections with last-minute mail and telephone endorsements.

Bill Luddy, spokesman for the Los Angeles County District Council of Carpenters, said the letter “was fairly standard.” “If their public positions are ones we support, especially in (elections) as close as this,” the union may send out endorsement letters without contacting the candidates, he said.

He said the endorsement was based on a newspaper article reporting Smith’s and Balkman’s support of Marina Place. “If they don’t want our support they can certainly say so,” Luddy said. Luddy said the endorsement was not from an outside force, that “our members live in Culver City.”

City Atty. Eleanor Egan said Wednesday that the mailer does not violate the city’s campaign activities law, which requires political advertisements with endorsements to contain a disclaimer if the endorsement is without the candidate’s authorization. The law is intended to regulate literature that is left door-to-door and of which at least 200 copies are distributed, she said. “It’s pretty hard for a locality to restrict what comes in the mail,” she said.

The Marina Place developers also said they did not have any prior knowledge of the carpenters union endorsement, said Marianne Lowenthal, general manager for the Prudential Property Co.

Jackie McCain, who alerted Councilman Steven Gourley about the letter, which was addressed to her husband, said she personally supports Marina Place. But the letter “is an outside force, it has no business” in Culver City, she said.

The Marina Place mall--envisioned as containing more than 150 stores, restaurants and a movie theater, has emerged as the primary issue in the April 10 election. The five-member City Council, now split 3 to 2 in favor of the project, this month rushed to approve the project and conclude an agreement with Prudential and Melvin Simon & Associates in an effort to guarantee their right to build.

Even if Hammons is elected, it is uncertain whether the new council would be able to block the project, but former City Atty. Joseph Pannone has advised the city that the council may have the authority to alter the development agreement. In any event, an anti-mall majority on the council is perceived by the project’s supporters as a source of potential trouble and delays.

An additional possible threat on the ballot to Marina Place is a citizens initiative that would limit the height of buildings in certain commercial areas, including the mall site along Washington Boulevard, just east of Lincoln.

Although Smith criticized the carpenters union letter, she said that three representatives of the Marina Place developers attended her $100-a-ticket fund-raiser last Friday. She waited until after the council approved the development agreement, on March 19, before sending them invitations, she said.

“I try not to have any developers with pending projects (contribute). . . . If something is far down the approval process or approved, I don’t have a problem with it,” said Smith, who, according to her campaign treasurer Hal Berman, has spent about $11,000 as of last Saturday. Smith said she would not turn down future contributions by the Marina Place developers.

Balkman, however, said “the most I’ve ever gotten from (the developers) is, ‘Hey, good luck, I hope you make it.’ ”

If he were to receive a donation from the Marina Place or any other developers, “I’d send it back,” Balkman said. Similarly, he said, he would “ask them not to” circulate any campaign literature on his behalf. Balkman, who spent about $7,000 as of late February, wants to raise and spend about $15,000 total, said campaign treasurer Diane Pannone.

“I favor the (Marina Place) project, it doesn’t mean I favor the developer,” Balkman said, adding that he doesn’t want to feel tied to them if the developers come seeking council approval for another project.

The developers “do not have any plans” to further contribute to the campaigns of Smith or Balkman, Prudential representative Lowenthal said. “We’re not getting involved in the election at all,” she said.

Candidate Hammons, meanwhile, said the Venice Town Council, which has threatened to sue to stop Marina Place, has “asked if they could help.” Both the Town Council and the city of Los Angeles object to the project, whose site is nearly surrounded by Los Angeles neighborhoods.

The Los Angeles critics say the development will clog their intersections, increase air pollution and restrict public access to the coast. Most of the project’s advocates in Culver City say these problems will be outweighed by the revenue Marina Place will generate for their city.

Hammons, who said he has spent about $5,000 and wants to keep his campaign spending under $10,000, said he may ask Venice Town Council volunteers to walk precincts, but he will not accept cash from the council.

“That’s a tightrope I’d like to walk. I’d like to keep as independent as possible, but I’d like to join in friendship, for the future,” Hammons said.

Hammons favors cutting the size of Marina Place by 25%, saying that would still produce plenty of revenue for the city. At a candidates forum Tuesday night, he said that if he were on the council, he would have negotiated to have the developers move “the theaters, the traffic, and put them in downtown Culver City, the Heart of Screenland.”