Supervisors Fight Over Field Offices : Redistricting: Mike Antonovich refuses to give up sites in Ed Edelman’s area in a political turf battle.

In the latest turf battle stemming from court-ordered redistricting, Los Angeles County Supervisors Ed Edelman and Mike Antonovich are tussling over district offices in the San Fernando Valley.

Antonovich, who no longer represents most areas of the Valley, is refusing to close branch offices in Woodland Hills and Pacoima, even though Edelman began representing those communities after districts were redrawn in November.

Through a spokesman, Antonovich said he will not relocate the Valley offices--which together cost the county almost $2,000 a month--until new district boundaries are drawn to reflect population changes recorded by the 1990 U.S. census. The county boundary committee has until Oct. 1 to complete the new map.

The reason is financial, said Antonovich spokesman Dawson Oppenheimer. If Antonovich lost areas of the district where new offices were opened, or regained the old neighborhoods, the offices would have to move twice, he said.

“It is far better for the taxpayer and for everyone,” Oppenheimer said. “We have no intention of domiciling permanently in someone else’s district.”

Although he acknowledges that the county is struggling with far weightier issues, such as shrinking tax revenues, growing welfare rolls and an AIDS epidemic, the territorial dispute makes Edelman angry. As he sees it, Antonovich is stubbornly clinging to areas no longer in his domain.

“District Office Wars,” as Edelman calls it, is silly and confusing for constituents, he said. Also, he complained that Antonovich has issued commemorative scrolls for Valley organizations and citizens from communities he no longer represents.

“Sure, we’ve got other issues to fight, but he’s got to get squared away here,” Edelman said. “Either Mike will agree to straighten it out, or we’re going to find a way to straighten it out.”

So far, Edelman has retaliated by refusing to support Antonovich’s request for a larger field office in Pasadena.

Antonovich is out of town and could not be reached for comment. He had represented the Valley since his 1980 election, but his new district includes only about 100,000 residents who live on the Valley’s northern and eastern rims, several miles from either of the offices in dispute.

Field offices function primarily as clearinghouses for questions and concerns from county residents, merchants and prospective builders.

Even though having offices in the wrong district is not illegal, according to the county counsel’s office, it is unusual. The two Valley offices are the only old field offices that have not either been vacated or transferred to the district’s new representative, county leasing authorities said.

Leeta Pistone, Antonovich’s Woodland Hills deputy, said she has shifted some of her attention to Santa Clarita, where Antonovich has no office. She also continues to respond to more than 25 calls and letters a week from residents of the old district.

“If it’s something simple we can handle, we go ahead and do it,” Pistone said. “Otherwise we refer it to Ed’s Van Nuys office.”