CITY HALL ROUNDUP : This lame duck will keep those hoping to replace him on their toes.

HEEEEERE’S ROGER: Who says Hermosa Beach won’t have Roger Creighton to kick around anymore?

The colorful councilman and sometime gadfly has announced he won’t run for reelection this November, but his would-be successors will have to contend with him nonetheless--on local access cable TV.

Beginning this week, Creighton will emcee a political interview show for Multivision Cable Television, grilling each of the 10 candidates who have announced an intention to run for the City Council.

“I’m not gonna endorse anybody--I’m just gonna ask questions,” growled the curmudgeonly Creighton last week. “We’re gonna film the thing beginning Wednesday morning, and then we’re gonna air the livin’ bejeezus out of it.”

Producer John Atkinson said the hourlong show will feature one candidate at a time, and will tentatively air every Monday and Wednesday at 5 p.m. For added variety, Atkinson is hoping to enlist a panel of local journalists to question the candidates, but the star attraction will be Creighton, who is expected to draw out the candidates’ positions on everything from bars to building heights.

Atkinson said he chose Creighton only partly because he isn’t running for reelection.

“I think it’s kind of good for the candidates to get a taste of what Hermosa politics is all about,” he said, “and I think Roger pretty much sums it up.”

SIGNS OF CRIME: Steamed at having a perfectly good cut-through route ruined by the city of Torrance’s meddling, an indignant driver evidently decided to take matters into his own hands.

For weeks now, police have stopped and ticketed a steady stream of drivers who disobey three new signs barring left-hand turns from Vista Montana onto Newton Street.

Last weekend, two of the signs mysteriously disappeared. The third was torched to a crisp.

Without the signs there, gleeful drivers briefly returned to their old cut-through habits, avoiding congested Pacific Coast Highway by zipping along Newton instead.

Their delight was short-lived. City workers quickly replaced the purloined and damaged signs. And traffic officers returned to their watchful posts.

HOME STRETCH: It isn’t a cornfield, and Kevin Costner hasn’t heard voices there, but San Pedro baseball lovers say a dusty 15-acre plot of land on North Gaffey Street soon will be their field of dreams.

Fund-raisers say they are nearly halfway around the bases toward collecting the $1.6 million needed to turn the vacant city-owned lot into four full-size baseball diamonds and a smaller T-ball diamond.

Los Angeles City Council members have approved a long-term lease to San Pedro Baseball Inc., a nonprofit organization created to develop and operate the new baseball facility.

The recreational complex will be no minor league project. Organizers plan to include stadium lights for night games, electronic scoreboards, snack bars and restrooms and amenities for the disabled.

Several large corporations have promised money for the project, including Unocal, which is contributing $300,000. Earlier this month, the Amateur Athletic Foundation presented a $98,900 check.

Shoeless Joe Jackson would have loved it.

HEAD COUNT: Inglewood City Manager Paul Eckles expected the U.S. Census Bureau to overlook many residents of the predominantly black and Latino city in its head count. And he was right: The city led the nation with a 10.9% undercount.

But Eckles was not prepared for the difficulty he himself would have in getting counted.

No census form ever arrived at his nearby Ladera Heights home. A postcard did eventually show up in his mailbox reminding him to return the nonexistent form. But the postcard had no telephone number or other information.

During the bureau’s door-to-door follow-up, in which enumerators are supposed to visit residents who have not mailed back their forms, there was no knock at Eckles’ door.

But Eckles did become one of the 248.7 million Americans counted in the 1990 Census. He was hand-delivered a census form after Inglewood officials brought up Eckles’ case to federal officials to show how flawed the census was.

LAST WEEK’S HIGHLIGHTS

Carson: On the last day of its self-imposed budget deadline, the City Council passed a $29.1-million spending plan. The new budget is about $500,000 less than last year’s.

Hawthorne: Three months after the state Department of Housing and Community Development found the city’s General Plan housing element to be deficient, City Council members have agreed to pay Ralph Castaneda & Associates $18,440 to study the report and suggest modifications.

Hermosa Beach: Wording for four ballot measures was approved by the council for the Nov. 5 election. One would make the Biltmore site into a park; one would allow the council to sell the property and buy open space elsewhere in the city, and two others would advise the council on policies for reducing the intensely developed feel to the city and the height of commercial buildings.

Inglewood: The City Council signed an agreement with Floatmasters Inc. for the design and construction of a float for the 1992 Tournament of Roses Parade. The city had allocated $135,000 in its budget for the float. City officials hope to make the float decoration a community-wide event. A float design has not yet been chosen.

Redondo Beach: The city’s centennial pageant, jeopardized by a potential lack of funds, got a last-minute cash infusion of $100,000, courtesy of the City Council. The money comes from a 1% increase in the bed tax passed two years ago, and is being drawn from a pot earmarked for promoting tourism in the city.

Torrance: The city agreed to pay a consultant up to $140,000 to prepare guidelines for reviewing hazardous chemical use and storage applications. Battelle Memorial Institute of Ohio will gather public comment before completing the guidelines.

THIS WEEK’S HIGHLIGHTS

Because this is the fifth week of the month, most South Bay city councils will not hold meetings.

Lawndale: The City Council will consider an urgency ordinance Thursday that would reduce the density of all new condominiums and apartments under construction in the city for an interim period of 45 days. It is also to consider a measure that would require property owners to remove graffiti within 72 hours or be charged for city personnel to remove it. The council meeting starts 7 p.m. Thursday, 14717 Burin Ave. 973-4321. Televised live on Channel 60 and repeated several times during the week.

ALSO MEETING THIS WEEK

Los Angeles: 10 a.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, 200 N. Spring St., Los Angeles. In San Pedro, 548-7637; in Wilmington, 548-7586; in Harbor City/Harbor Gateway, 548-7664; in Westchester, 641-4717. Televised live on Channel 35; meetings repeated individually at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday and collectively on Sunday starting at 10 a.m.