Galanter’s Key Planning Aide Abruptly Quits : Government: Two other field representatives of the city councilwoman are dismissed in a major staff shake-up.

Los Angeles Councilwoman Ruth Galanter’s principal adviser on major planning issues, including the vast Playa Vista project, has abruptly resigned, and two other Galanter field representatives have been dismissed in a major staff shake-up.

Rubell Helgeson, a longtime Galanter associate who has served as the councilwoman’s planning deputy since shortly after she was elected in 1987, will leave City Hall at the end of the month. “It was time for a change,” she said.

Jeff Kruger, Galanter’s spokesman, said Helgeson will continue to work with the council office as a consultant.

Helgeson has been Galanter’s chief representative on a wide range of planning matters, including the proposed multibillion-dollar Playa Vista project.

Her resignation earlier this month coincided with dismissal of two other aides, Linda Lucks, Galanter’s field deputy and community liaison for Venice during the last year, and Lance Diskan, a constituent deputy who joined the staff in October, 1987.

Kruger said Galanter had no comment on the “staff reorganization.” He brushed aside further questions saying: “This is an internal matter.”

The moves, he said, were intended to provide “better, more efficient service to constituents.”

Lucks declined to discuss the circumstances of her dismissal.

“Ruth has the right to do what she wants with her office and staff,” Lucks said. “It was a very rewarding experience to work for the council office.”

Diskan could not be reached for comment.

The staff changes stunned some of the Westside community activists who were the heart of Galanter’s political base when she won an upset victory over longtime councilwoman Pat Russell in 1987.

“I was surprised and puzzled,” said Dell Morgan of Venice. “There was no forewarning. It just doesn’t gel. . . . We just don’t understand why.”

Jack Hoffman, former president of the Venice Action Committee, also expressed concern about the changes, particularly Lucks’ departure.

“Linda Lucks has been a godsend,” he said. “She was incredibly responsive and had her ears to the ground.”

Sources close to Galanter said the shake-up grew out of a struggle between staffers and political consultants brought in to run Galanter’s reelection campaign last year. Galanter won a second term in June after being forced into a runoff by challenger Mary Lee Gray.

Helgeson and several other staff members had criticized Galanter, the sources said, particularly after she was forced into the runoff, for turning her campaign over to consultants Steven Glazer and Marc Litchman.

“Some people thought the mail (campaign literature) was lousy, some people thought Ruth should have gone to more public forums,” one person familiar with the campaign said. “There was this revolt--I mean, it was a near-mutiny.”

Helgeson acknowledged that she sent a memo to Galanter but refused to discuss its contents. “When things are as intense as the campaign gets, people get edgy,” she said. “But these tensions go away when the campaign is over.”

For his part, Litchman refused to discuss the staff changes. “That is internal city business,” he said. “I am not involved in any way.”

Helgeson is leaving at a critical time in the city’s review of plans for Playa Vista. An environmental impact report is being prepared on the effects of the residential, office, hotel, retail and marina project--one of the biggest in Los Angeles history. Plans call for construction of a community with 28,000 residents and 20,000 jobs on a vast stretch of open land between Marina del Rey and the Westchester Bluffs.

The scale of the development has raised concern about its impact on traffic in the heavily congested Lincoln Boulevard area. Sharp disagreements between city traffic engineers and the developer, Maguire Thomas Partners, remain over the extent of road improvements needed to handle Playa Vista traffic and how much the developer should pay for them.

Helgeson was Galanter’s spokeswoman on traffic issues and also served as her representative on a four-member committee working on plans to restore the Ballona Wetlands. Protection of the 260-acre wetlands is a key element in a settlement of a longstanding legal battle between environmentalists and Maguire Thomas’ predecessors in the Playa Vista project.

Helgeson said she was unaware of any disagreement between her and Galanter over the Playa Vista project, which still must be approved by the City Council.

“To the best of my knowledge, we are absolutely in sync on the issue, unless she has changed and hasn’t told me.”