ELECTIONS BEVERLY HILLS : Reelected Councilmen Focus on Civic Center Work

Newly reelected City Councilman Robert K. Tanenbaum said Wednesday that he would work for reform of the city bureaucracy that oversaw construction of Beverly Hills’ delayed and expensive civic center.

While Tanenbaum and fellow incumbents Max Salter were both returned to office in Tuesday’s election, more than a third of the voters favored Trisha Roth, a political newcomer who spent less than $5,000 on the campaign.

“It’s a protest vote, and that’s fine,” said Salter, who is serving as mayor. “Everybody who’s in office should know when the people disapprove of what they’re doing, and they’ve done that.”

But Salter predicted that despite the cost, now expected to near $100 million for a project originally estimated at $36 million and two years behind schedule, the people of Beverly Hills will be happy with the civic center once it is finished.

“I’m delighted that she ran,” Salter said of Roth. Had she not entered the race Feb. 1, the last day of the filing period, the election would have been canceled.

“I don’t think anybody should be reelected just because they’re there,” said Salter, 70, chairman of Beno’s, a statewide chain of clothing store. He noted that last year’s teacher strike came only a few weeks after a school board election was called off for lack of interest.

Roth first came to the public eye with a campaign against alcohol and drug abuse. But she also benefited from revelations of massive cost overruns for construction of the large and elaborately designed Civic Center.

Longtime City Manager Edward S. Kreins, who was blamed by City Council members for keeping them ignorant of the problems, announced his early retirement shortly after the delays and high cost of the Civic Center became public knowledge at the beginning of the year. He left his job this week but will stay on as a consultant.

“I think the Civic Center was the thing that focused people’s attention,” Roth said.

Roth won 1,465 votes, just over 21% of the total vote, compared to just under 43% for Tanenbaum and 36% for Salter. But fully 37% of the electorate, 1,465 of the 4,008 voters, chose her instead of at least one of the incumbents when they made their choice of two of the three candidates.

“I think (the voters) are saying that they’re not satisfied that the government represents what they want and that there is concern in the community about alcohol and other drugs,” she said. “And also, that a woman can be a viable candidate.

“I’ll be back two years from now,” said Roth, 44, a non-practicing pediatrician.

Tanenbaum, 47, senior partner in a downtown law firm, credited door-to-door campaigning for his victory.

“It’s critical that you go out there and meet as many people as you can,” he said. “I was talking about the concerns of the people in the community.”

Tanenbaum campaigned for cutting down the size of the Civic Center when he first ran for office four years ago. Now that it is nearly complete, he said he would work to reform the city bureaucracy that oversaw its construction.

“Everyone is being scrutinized,” he said, adding that he hoped to persuade his colleagues to make key department heads responsible to the City Council, instead of reporting solely to the city manager.

“We have a mandate to get a close handle on the city bureaucracy,” he said. “This election means to me that city staff has to be committed and dedicated to working for and being governed by the people of this city, and not a czar-bureaucrat.”

BEVERLY HILLS VOTE

12 of 18 Precincts

CITY COUNCIL

Two vacancies Candidate: Vote Trisha Roth: 1,465 Max Salter*: 2,407 Robert K. Tanenbaum*: 2,886

*Incumbent