Effort to Limit City Officials to Two Terms Abandoned

Supporters of a ballot initiative that would impose a two-term limit on Los Angeles city officials said Monday that they have abandoned their effort to qualify the measure for the November election, but vowed to try again.

Representatives of the grass-roots coalition of community groups, who had planned to deliver thousands of petitions to the city clerk today, said they were far short of the 205,000 signatures needed to qualify the measure.

“We got a very good amount of signatures, but not enough,” said spokeswoman Laura Lake, president of Friends of Westwood.

Organizers said the failed campaign will serve as a foundation for a second effort, which could begin as early as next month to qualify for the ballot in April, 1991. Supporters said, however, that they will go forward only if they raise enough money to hire professional signature-gatherers.

“We have discovered that the cynics were right,” said Harald Hahn, the group’s treasurer. “You can’t do it on volunteers alone. It is one of the problems of volunteer services. Everyone promises you support, but when you need them, they may or may not be there.”

The campaign, called L.A. 2-Term Limit, raised about $35,000, but Lake said it needed about 10 times that amount.

Under the proposed charter amendment, elected city officials, who now have no limits on their terms, would have been able to serve two four-year terms in a row, but would have been required to sit out at least one term before running again for the same office.

Mayor Tom Bradley, City Atty. James K. Hahn, Controller Rick Tuttle and 12 of the 15 City Council members would have been blocked from running for reelection if the measure were approved by voters. Only Council members Richard Alatorre, Ruth Galanter and Nate Holden, who are serving their first full terms, would have been able to run again without waiting a term.

Supporters of the initiative would not disclose how many signatures they gathered since launching the campaign in December.

“We want the articles to say why we lost, not what we lost by,” said Bob Carcia, who coordinated volunteers.