LOCAL ELECTIONS: BALLOT MEASURES : Yaroslavsky Ad Will Blast City Ethics Plan : Campaigns: The councilman’s radio spots call Prop. H a ‘politicians’ pay-raise scheme.’ The other side plans ads too.

Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky has dipped into his personal campaign fund to finance a last-minute radio advertising blitz against Proposition H, the government ethics Charter amendment that goes before Los Angeles voters on Tuesday.

Yaroslavsky’s appeal, scheduled to begin airing on local stations today, will be challenged by an eleventh-hour salvo from the campaign supporting the ethics measure.

The councilman’s ads urge a “no” vote on Proposition H, describing it as a “politicians’ pay-raise scheme they call ethics reform. It’s a fraud.”

Los Angeles Taxpayers for Clean Government, the pro-Proposition H committee, contends that the measure will rid City Hall of special interests. “It’s about time we had some tough laws for city politicians to live by,” its ad says.

Neither side would say exactly how much it will spend.

Although both sides say they only want good government, both have taken money from special interests to fund the campaigns. And both in the last week launched attacks against the opposition for accepting such contributions.

The contest over Proposition H is pitting old friends and political allies against one another. While Yaroslavsky urges defeat of the measure, his close associates Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Los Angeles) and Rep. Mel Levine (D-Santa Monica) will be endorsing it in a direct-mail campaign.

And Yaroslavsky’s customary campaign manager, the political consulting firm of Berman and D’Agostino, has agreed to support Proposition H on its “slate mailer”--cards sent to voters in important Westside Democratic neighborhoods.

Yaroslavsky said he is spending less than $50,000 on his ads, the money coming from an outdated campaign fund that now operates as a political action committee. As of the last reporting period, at year-end 1989, he had $61,561 in his Friends of Yaroslavsky campaign fund. Under Proposition H, politicians would be limited to raising no more than $25,000 in personal political action committees, which Yaroslavsky himself has called “slush funds.”

The Los Angeles Taxpayers for Clean Government had raised about $95,000 as of last week, but had spent about $80,000 on slate mailers, polling and organizing efforts.

During the last week, campaign workers were attempting to raise more money for the radio campaign. Councilman Michael Woo, who is supporting the measure, said the committee was hoping to broadcast an ad featuring Jesse Jackson.

Proponents of Proposition H say it would reduce the influence of special interests by limiting the outside income, gifts and honorariums that city politicians may accept. The measure also contains a 40% pay raise for City Council members.

Proposition H is supported by 12 of 15 City Council members, Mayor Tom Bradley and a long list of community and civic groups.

The opposition is led by Yaroslavsky and council members Ruth Galanter and Ernani Bernardi, who say the measure is a back-door way for the council to gain a sizable pay raise.

With the vote days away, opponents laid plans for dealing with a win or a loss.

The council’s Rules and Elections Committee on Friday approved an ethics reform plan that its sponsors have billed as a no-cost alternative to Proposition H.