Field of June Candidates Takes Shape : Election: Filing ends for most races. Contest for Hahn’s supervisorial seat, battle for district attorney and debate on police reforms are expected to draw the most attention.

A historic vote to reform the Los Angeles Police Department and a contest that will likely produce the county’s first elected black supervisor top the local June 2 ballot, for which filing ended Friday in most races.

In other prominent campaigns, Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner faces possible trouble from four challengers, including two veteran Los Angeles County prosecutors and a former New York City prosecutor. But county Supervisors Mike Antonovich and Deane Dana drew no big-name opponents, despite controversy surrounding county spending practices.

In races expected to draw the most interest:

* Eleven candidates, led by ex-Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke and state Sen. Diane Watson (D-Los Angeles), filed to run for the 2nd Supervisorial District seat, from which veteran Supervisor Kenneth Hahn is retiring. Filing deadlines are extended to Wednesday in races where the incumbent is not running.

The race is expected to produce the county’s first elected black supervisor. Burke was appointed to the board in 1979 but lost a 1980 election to Dana.

* In the city of Los Angeles, voters will decide on three measures: a historic package of police reforms, a “buy American” plan to let city officials give bidding preference to local and state firms, and a proposal to allow Olvera Street merchants to seek long-term leases.

Countywide, only one measure will appear on the ballot--a $100-million bond to equip older county high-rises with sprinklers.

The proposed police reform measure, growing out of last year’s police beating of Rodney G. King, would limit a chief to two five-year terms, and would allow the mayor to nominate a new chief from three candidates named by the Personnel Department.

The Police Commission would have the power to fire a chief, with the mayor and the council entitled to reverse the commission’s action. The measure also would give the council authority to fire the chief by a two-thirds vote.

Under the current system, a chief has Civil Service protection enabling him to serve unless he is found guilty of misconduct.

Commissioners could serve two five-year terms. A commission president would be limited to two consecutive one-year terms. And a new position of commission executive officer--a civilian exempt from Civil Service--would be created to help improve the panel’s ability to oversee and control department operations.

The measure would also extend the statute of limitations for bringing misconduct charges against an officer from one year after the date of an incident to one year after discovery of the incident.

Another city measure would allow city officials to give bidding preference to local and state firms, and set a minimum domestic content requirement for city purchases to help protect Southern California jobs and stimulate the economy. A third would enable city officials to negotiate long-term concession agreements with merchants on Olvera Street to help preserve the Mexican flavor of the downtown tourist spot.

* Superior Court Judge Joyce A. Karlin--the target of a recall campaign over her controversial sentence of probation for a Korean-born grocer who killed a black girl--also faces a hotly contested June primary election. Her opponents are Thomasina Reed, an Inglewood lawyer who is vice president of that city’s school board; Robert S. Henry, a deputy attorney general, and Donald Barnett, a Century City lawyer.

In the district attorney’s race, Reiner faces Deputy Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti, who was Reiner’s chief deputy and heads the agency’s Torrance office; Deputy Dist. Atty. Sterling Norris, an outspoken advocate of victim’s rights; Beverly Hills Councilman Robert Tanenbaum, former New York City prosecutor, and Howard Johnson, an attorney who has run as a Libertarian candidate for Congress.

Political analysts say Reiner, who has served as district attorney since 1984, may be vulnerable, given his loss in the 1990 Democratic primary for attorney general and the failure of his office to win convictions on several high-profile cases, including the McMartin Pre-school trial.

Dana faces six challengers in the 4th District, which hugs the coast from Marina del Rey to Long Beach, then heads north along the Orange County line to Diamond Bar.

Challengers are Gordana Swanson, a Rolling Hills councilwoman and board member of the Southern California Rapid Transit District; Al Stillwell, a retired Long Beach businessman; Joe Chavez, a county data processing employee from Hacienda Heights; Norman Amjadi , an environmental health specialist for the county from Torrance, and Jeffrey Drobman, a computer engineer from Marina del Rey, and Lawrence Manning of Redondo Beach.

Antonovich faces six opponents in the 5th District, which includes Burbank, Glendale and Pasadena, the north ends of the San Fernando and San Gabriel valleys and all of the Antelope Valley.

The challengers are William Paparian, a Pasadena councilman and attorney who attracted attention last year after he suggested that members of a white supremacist clique allegedly operating out of a sheriff’s substation be barred from policing the Rose Parade; Margalo Ashley-Farrand , a Glendale attorney; Lynne Plambeck , a Burbank business owner; Shereef Aref, who works for the state Environmental Protection Agency; Jim Mihalka, a paramedic from Glendora who ran in the supervisorial race won by Molina, and Craig “Tax Freeze” Freis.

Political analysts cited the supervisors’ fund-raising advantage--Antonovich and Dana each have raised more than $1 million--and the huge size of supervisorial districts--each has 1.8 million residents--as deterrents to opponents.

The challengers have pledged to ke a campaign issue out of the county’s boosting of pensions for top officials, and supervisors’ spending of tax dollars for chauffeurs, bulletproof cars and gourmet lunches. Several challengers also have pledged to serve no more than two four-year terms--a promise they hope will play well with voters who approved term limits for state officials.

Antonovich and Dana, both elected in 1980, said they will campaign on their efforts to turn over management of some county functions to private business--a program they claim has saved more than $50 million a year.

But most attention is expected to be focused on the contest in Hahn’s South Los Angeles 2nd District. Candidates other than Burke and Watson are Gil Smith, a former mayor of Carson; Howard Sands, an actor; Randolph (Rudy) Thompson, an interior design manufacturer; David Sanchez, a professor; Clint Simmons, an engineer; Richard Atkins, a real estate/business developer, Dean Wetmore, operator of a small importing business; Louis Chitty III, a former schoolteacher, and Eli Green, a pipefitter.

Voters in Hacienda Heights also will decide whether they want to become the county’s 89th city.

Times staff writers Louis Sahagun and Sheryl Stolberg contributed to this story.

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