ELECTIONS: CITY COUNCIL : Race Is a Choice of Independents, Slates or a Mix : Santa Monica: With the voting less than two weeks away, no candidate has emerged as a clear front-runner.

Santa Monica voters may wish to treat the ballot as if it were a Chinese restaurant menu when they try to pick three candidates from the field of nine in the Nov. 6 City Council elections.

Voters, for example, might choose the combination of the two-candidate slate of Kelly Olsen and Tony Vazquez, supported by Santa Monicans for Renters’ Rights, the tenants’ political group that rode into power on the back of rent control.

Or they could back the three-candidate slate of incumbent Councilwoman Christine E. Reed, Donna Alvarez and Robert T. Holbrook, all former members of the now-defunct All-Santa Monica Coalition, which was formed in the early ‘80s to oppose SMRR candidates.

They could try an a la carte approach and choose among the four independent candidates, Larry Jon Hobbs, Kathleen Schwallie, Jean Gebman and Sharon Gilpin--although Schwallie and Gilpin are sometimes lumped together as two slow-growth candidates.

Or voters can simply choose one from column A, one from column B and one from column C.

“You can put together all the slates you want, but that doesn’t mean people are going to vote that way,” said Reed, who is seeking a fifth term on the council. “Santa Monica voters are liberal, independent-minded people who sort out the candidates from the issues. I think they look for balance in both the tickets and on the council.”

Some candidates and other observers of city politics say voters may be growing weary of slates.

“I think people are tired of slate politics,” said Gilpin. “There is a feeling that the council is divided and members made to take sides.”

The city’s police and fire unions have decided to take one candidate from each camp. In the past, the unions have endorsed Reed, but this year they snubbed her, primarily because contract talks with the city had been dragging on. Instead, they endorsed Olsen, Holbrook and Schwallie.

There are other endorsements that have raised eyebrows. The Los Angeles League of Conservation Voters, for example, surprised some election observers by endorsing slow-growth candidates Gilpin and Schwallie, as well as Reed, whom both Gilpin and Schwallie have targeted for defeat because of her pro-development voting record.

Because slate-splitting is likely to be common, the election is a difficult one to handicap. No candidate has emerged as a clear front-runner less than two weeks before the election.

As the lone incumbent in the race, Reed has been the target of most of the criticism in the campaign, particularly in matters relating to development. Slow-growth candidates Schwallie and Gilpin have been quite vocal in their criticism of Reed, as have SMRR leaders.

“Christine Reed has voted to approve more commercial development than any council member in the history of Santa Monica,” said Mayor Dennis Zane, a member of the SMRR steering committee.

Reed has attempted to play down her voting record on development by saying that some SMRR members on the council--including Zane--have joined her in supporting some of the projects for which she has been criticized.

“There is definitely a burden in being the lone incumbent,” said Reed, who was first elected in 1975. “You get blamed for everything that is wrong in the city.”

But she said the positives of being an incumbent outweigh the negatives.

“It’s always an advantage in terms of name recognition,” she said.

Following are brief profiles of each candidate, in the same order that they appear on the ballot.

Robert T. Holbrook, 48, has been a member of the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District Board of Education since 1983. He is a lifelong Santa Monica resident and is on the faculty of the USC School of Pharmacy.

Holbrook said he is stepping down from the school board in part because his three children are all in college now and because the current City Council has done little to solve the problem of homelessness in the city.

He has called for the creation of a Homeless Task Force to study and monitor homeless issues, but has joined others in blaming City Atty. Robert M. Myers’ policy of not prosecuting homeless people for some misdemeanor crimes for aggravating the problem.

“We’ve got to get tough on tough issues,” said Holbrook, who has adopted the phrase as his campaign slogan. “If the city attorney doesn’t want to enforce the laws of this city, then we should throw him out of office.”

Holbrook supports Proposition Y, which would change the city attorney’s office from one appointed by the City Council to one elected by voters.

In the landlord-tenant battle of dueling ballot measures, he comes down on the side of the landlords, endorsing Proposition U, which would allow rents on voluntarily vacated units to increase to market levels. He says landlords need that kind of financial relief as incentive not to go out of business.

Holbrook said he favors “controlled” growth in the city, but has declined to state how he will vote on Proposition Z, which has emerged as the hottest single development issue in the election. The measure asks whether the City Council’s approval of a hotel and community center proposed by restaurateur Michael McCarty on a parcel of state-owned beach should be repealed.

Larry Jon Hobbs, 48, an auto shop teacher at Narbonne High School in Harbor City, has been the least active candidate. He has not appeared at many joint candidate forums, and he has not sent out any campaign literature.

But he says his campaign is serious, and he plans to win.

“I am not accepting a penny from anybody, because I would be working for the residents of Santa Monica,” Hobbs said. “There would be no special interests. I would have no allegiance but to the people.”

A Santa Monica resident for more than 30 years, Hobbs supports the landlords’ Proposition U over SMRR’s Proposition W. He opposes McCarty’s proposed beach hotel, saying he does not believe it will be successful.

Hobbs is in favor of Proposition Y, the city attorney measure. “Mr. Myers is a competent attorney, but I feel he puts his personal challenges in front of his duties to the city of Santa Monica,” Hobbs said. “The city attorney should be responsible to all the people, not just to the group that controls the council.”

Hobbs says the homeless should not be fed on the City Hall lawn. Instead, he says, the city should provide money, but then designate a social service agency to feed and counsel the homeless.

Tony Vazquez, 34, a former schoolteacher, now works as a planner with United Way. A homeowner in Sunset Park since 1985, Vazquez is one of two candidates endorsed by SMRR.

Though he supports a strong rent control law, Vazquez is better known for his work on Latino issues, including a stint as executive director of the Latino Resource Organization.

Vazquez was also involved in an unsuccessful effort to qualify an initiative that would have replaced the city’s at-large system of City Council representation with a district system. The intent of the campaign was to increase the minority representation on the council, which is now composed of seven Anglos.

If elected, Vazquez would be the first Latino on the City Council. He says he would bring representation to the predominantly Latino Pico neighborhood, even though he does not live there.

Vazquez says his background in social services would be an asset in dealing with such issues as homelessness, affordable housing, crime and the environment.

He proposes opening all armories in the Westside during the winter months as a way to get people off the streets and out of parks. To address the problems of alcohol abuse and public drunkenness among the homeless, he advocates a crackdown on the sale of fortified wines and stiff fines for the sale of alcohol to intoxicated people.

Vazquez says he favors a citywide growth-management program to control development, but he will not say publicly how he plans to vote on the three development-related propositions on the ballot, including the one involving McCarty’s hotel project.

“I agree with the council’s decision to place the matter of the hotel on the ballot for the voters to decide, and I don’t want how I’m voting to influence other voters,” Vazquez said.

Kelly Olsen, 36, is the other candidate endorsed by SMRR. Although he says he will work to maintain strong rent control--including support for SMRR-backed Proposition W--which allows for rent increases far smaller than the landlords’ Proposition U--he has been active more recently in fighting development.

Olsen, a 30-year resident of the city who lists his occupation on his ballot statement as writer/slow growth advocate, has been a board member of Mid-City Neighbors and likens his philosophy on controlled development to that of current Councilman Ken Genser.

“If I could emulate Ken Genser, I would be very proud,” he said. “I think Ken is sensitive to the neighbors’ needs. He doesn’t gloss over (staff reports) like everyone else. Ken is pro-environment, and I hope to be the same way.”

Olsen said he favors tying future development to the city streets’ ability to handle the increased traffic. He opposes McCarty’s proposed beach hotel and favors the council’s recent decision to downzone certain residential areas to discourage the demolition of apartment buildings for new condominiums.

Olsen also advocates hiring 35 additional police officers to combat increased gang activity and crime in parks, and supports the creation of an Office of Homeless Services, which would coordinate with other communities an effort to provide services.

He opposes Proposition Y, saying it is really an attack on Myers and rent control.

Kathleen Schwallie, 30, is an attorney who lives in Sunset Park. She was a leader in forming a splinter residents’ group in her neighborhood called Friends of Sunset Park, as well as a citywide coalition of neighborhood groups called the Santa Monica Neighborhood Coalition. Both groups advocate controlling commercial development in the city.

Schwallie was a central figure in the successful battle early this year to thwart a large commercial development on city property at Santa Monica Municipal Airport. She also opposes McCarty’s hotel project.

When she announced her candidacy, she came out swinging at Reed, identifying the incumbent as a candidate “who needs to be defeated.”

More recently, she has attacked the dominance of SMRR candidates in local politics.

“People do not believe their City Council is representing their interests,” she said. “There is a perception that SMRR has outlived its usefulness.”

Schwallie, whom some SMRR members are personally backing, opposes both rent control propositions, saying that neither guarantees that landlords will stop going out of business under the terms of the state Ellis Act. As an alternative, she favors the Rent Control Board’s Incentive Housing Program, which allows landlords to raise rents on some units if an equal number of units are set aside for low-income people. To participate, landlords must agree to keep their units on the rental market for at least 10 years. So far, the majority of landlords has shunned the program.

Schwallie supports providing temporary shelters and a work program for the homeless, but opposes creating a city agency to deal with the problem.

Donna Alvarez, 54, is a retired businesswoman who lives in the Pico neighborhood and has aligned with Reed and Holbrook. She ran unsuccessfully for the City Council two years ago as an independent and finished sixth in a field of 13.

Alvarez said that although the three allies agree on most issues, the decision to form a slate was primarily an economic one. She said the three are splitting the costs of a campaign headquarters, signs and some literature.

She has been focusing on the issues of homelessness and crime, particularly in her neighborhood, which she said is often ignored by the City Council. She also questions Vazquez’ contention that he would represent her neighborhood.

“I’m not Latino, but I can do it better. I live here,” she said.

Alvarez supports McCarty’s proposed hotel because of the revenue it would provide the city and describes herself as a moderate when it comes to commercial development.

“I am not pro-development, and I am not no-growth,” she said. “There has to be some recycling (of run-down properties), although some scaling back of what has been recently approved is needed.”

A co-owner of two four-unit apartment buildings that she says she is selling, Alvarez supports the landlord-backed Proposition U over the SMRR measure because she said landlords need an incentive to stay in business.

Alvarez favors creating a commission to evaluate existing services for the homeless, and supports a ban on sleeping in city parks and beaches, as well as a ban on panhandling.

Christine E. Reed, 46, is seeking an unprecedented fifth term on the council. As the lone incumbent, she has been the target of several of the challengers, primarily because of her voting record on commercial development, including support for the airport project and for McCarty’s hotel.

While acknowledging that the full impact of some of the projects she voted for has turned out worse than she thought, Reed said she has voted with the economic health of the city in mind.

“If I was more Machiavellian, I would vote against all development like Mr. Genser,” she said, noting that Genser has voted against most large commercial developments.

Reed also supports the measure that would make the city attorney’s office an elected position because she said there are not five votes on the City Council to fire Myers.

“It’s a drastic measure only because the council has been so derelict to exercise its authority,” she said. “This is the only way to get rid of Bob Myers.”

Reed said she favors the establishment of more shelters for the homeless, but not without a commitment to close the parks to overnight sleeping. She advocates incentives for the construction of new single room occupancy housing and a work program for the homeless.

She supports the landlords’ rent control proposition over the SMRR measure.

Sharon Gilpin, 39, runs her own communications and marketing company and has been active in local politics since the early 1970s. She made an unsuccessful run for the council in 1975.

She was a leader of the battle to stop the office project at the airport and also has been a vigorous opponent of McCarty’s proposed hotel.

She disdains the label of a “no-growther,” saying that she favors development that takes into consideration a realistic approach to how much the city can bear. She said developers need to know up front what will be allowed to be built, rather than having the rules change “when he or she is standing in front of the council.”

“If the city continues to build as it has, then we are going to have a crisis,” she said. “Santa Monica is, first and foremost, a residential community.

Some of Gilpin’s opponents contend that her opposition to McCarty’s hotel is part of an attempt to resurrect the private Sand and Sea Club at the site. Gilpin denies it.

“I think people are clear that if the Sand and Sea people tried to put a hotel there, I would try to stop that hotel, too,” she said.

Gilpin, a tenant in a complex whose owner has served notice of intent to evict under the Ellis Act, opposes the landlords’ Proposition U but is undecided on SMRR’s alternative.

Gilpin said that the major difference between her 1975 campaign and this race is that she spent $400 then and expects to spend about $25,000 this time.

Jean Gebman, 44, is an engineer and policy analyst for the RAND Corp. He has been active primarily in youth activities, such as Little League and soccer.

He said he decided to run for the City Council after seeing homeless people take over parks and in response to what he perceived to be a growing frustration in the community over aggressive panhandling.

Gebman advocates forming a citizen advisory council to draw up a plan that would prevent people from sleeping in parks. As part of his plan, he proposes a two-level shelter system to separate those who need mental health services and those who are able to work.

Despite his dissatisfaction with city policies regarding the homeless, he opposes making the city attorney an elected position--a stance that he says has cost his campaign financial support.

Gebman describes himself as moderate, rather than a “liberal slow-growther or no-growther” on development and was a founding member of the Santa Monica Neighborhood Coalition. He opposes McCarty’s hotel and says residents should have more voice in how much new development should be allowed.

He favors the landlords’ ballot measure over SMRR’s measure, with some reluctance. Gebman said he is concerned that some tenants may be forced out of their apartments, but says that Proposition U provides landlords with the most incentive to stay in business.

Gebman says that he has supporters backing other candidates in both slates but that he opposes slate politics.

MAJOR BALLOT MEASURES Here is where the City Council candidates stand on the major ballot measures that go before Santa Monica voters Nov. 6.

Proposition U (landlords’ rent control measure)--The landlord-sponsored initiative that would allow rents on apartment units vacated voluntarily to rise to whatever rates the market will allow.

Candidates in favor: Robert T. Holbrook, Larry Jon Hobbs, Donna Alvarez, Christine C. Reed, Jean Gebman.

Against: Tony Vazquez, Kelly Olsen, Kathleen Schwallie, Sharon L. Gilpin.

Proposition W (tenants’ rent control measure)--Backed by Santa Monicans for Renters’ Rights to compete with Proposition U, it would allow specified increases in rents on units vacated voluntarily, but would keep rents generally well below free-market levels.

Candidates in favor: Vazquez, Olsen.

Against: Holbrook, Reed, Alvarez, Hobbs, Schwallie, Gebman.

Undecided: Gilpin.

Proposition Y (elected city attorney)--Would make the city attorney an elected position rather than one appointed by the City Council. It was placed on ballot through an initiative drive sponsored by community members concerned about crime and aggressive panhandling by the city’s sizable homeless population. City Atty. Robert M. Myers has been targeted by the group because of his reluctance to prosecute nonviolent crimes committed by the homeless.

Candidates in favor: Holbrook, Hobbs, Alvarez, Reed.

Against: Vazquez, Olsen, Schwallie, Gilpin, Gebman.

Proposition Z (beach hotel)--Would repeal the City Council’s approval of the Santa Monica Beach Hotel and Community Center, which restaurateur Michael McCarty plans to build on the site of the Sand and Sea Club. A “yes” vote is a vote to kill the project, and a “no” vote is to allow it to proceed.

Candidates in favor: Hobbs, Olsen, Schwallie, Gilpin, Gebman.

Against: Alvarez, Reed.

Declined to state position: Holbrook, Vazquez.