Officials Try to Move Hearings on Lopez Landfill : Dump: After angry outbursts at a variance hearing on Friday, the city is trying to shift the remaining talks away from Lake View Terrace.

Los Angeles city officials complained Monday that a “lynch mob” atmosphere they claim prevailed at a quasi-judicial hearing into the operations of the Lopez Canyon Landfill is preventing the city from getting a fair trial.

The city plans to ask that the hearings, which began Friday in Lake View Terrace, the site of the dump, be moved to another site. The hearings may last several more days and could result in wide-ranging orders requiring the city to step up efforts to reduce the amount of methane gas emitted by the landfill.

About 150 people attended Friday’s emotional and sometimes raucous hearing before the variance hearing board of the South Coast Air Quality Management District. The hearing is part of a review of the city’s compliance with the air board’s pollution regulations.

During the hearing, Deputy City Atty. Chris Westhoff was interrupted several times by boos and catcalls when he tried to defend the city’s landfill operations or counter residents’ testimony. Residents have complained repeatedly about methane releases and claim that the gas has caused several children and a landfill worker to become ill.

“I certainly did not get the feeling the city’s rights were being protected,” Westhoff told the Board of Public Works Monday, noting that the hearing was to have been conducted in a courtroom-like atmosphere.

He accused politicians who spoke at the hearing of “whipping the community into a frenzy” and contributing to a mob atmosphere.

In response to Westhoff’s request that future hearings be moved, Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar) said the city “ought to have the courage of their convictions and make their case for Lopez Canyon in Lake View Terrace.”

Katz said he would not object if the city also wanted to make its case before the hearing panel in some other venue.

Last week, the Board of Public Works approved expanding the dump to nearly double its capacity to 26 million tons. The board also recommended that the city be allowed to increase the daily number of trucks using the dump from 400 to 650.

The City Planning Commission and the City Council must give final approval to the expansion.

The air pollution board originally planned to hold the hearings at the board’s headquarters in El Monte. But it shifted the hearings to the Lake View Terrace Recreation Center under pressure from Katz, who represents the area.

Deputy Mayor Ed Avila echoed Westhoff’s concerns, saying that the city was being treated unfairly by the air board’s variance hearing panel.

Westhoff claimed that the air pollution panel was intimidated at Friday’s meeting by Lake View Terrace residents, who are virtually unanimous in opposing the landfill. He said the community pressured the panel to schedule another hearing for Saturday at the same location.

Katz and City Councilman Ernani Bernardi both spoke in opposition to the landfill at Friday’s hearing.

A top Bernardi aide claimed that the city attorney’s office apparently is troubled that the community is getting a fair hearing of its complaints before a panel that has the authority to alter the operations at Lopez Canyon.

“I think they’re concerned that somebody is paying attention to the community,” said David Mays, Bernardi’s chief deputy.