ELECTIONS : In This Race, ‘Politician’ Is a Dirty Word

There’s a sense of pre-storm calm hovering over the contest for two seats on the West Hollywood City Council.

Incumbents Paul Koretz and Abbe Land seek reelection against three challengers in a campaign that lacks the bared-teeth quality of past city elections--at least for now. Though debate never strays far from recent budget troubles, development and crime, no single controversy has dominated the campaign.

Two of the challengers are zeroing in on incumbency itself. So far, the liveliest jousting has been between Rachelle Sommers Smith, 50, a publicist, and Land.

Though the seats are at-large, Smith has aimed at Land in an attempt to break up the three-member council majority to which she belongs. Smith says that Land, who has been on the council since 1986, has grown unresponsive to residents and too dependent on council allies John Heilman and Babette Lang.

Smith, in her first run for the council, is proposing local term limits.

“She’s put a wall around herself,” she said of Land, who was once her political sponsor. “I feel she’s become a politician.”

Land, 36, received the most votes among five candidates in 1988. She again has gained the endorsement of the Coalition for Economic Survival, a powerful tenant-rights group, and is widely considered the front-runner.

She says that her years in government are a valuable asset in seeking ever-scarcer outside aid for projects such as the city’s new adult day-care center and its new CityLine shuttle service, though it is unclear how long funding will be available to keep the shuttle running.

“This is the time when we need someone with experience,” Land said.

Koretz, 36, appears more secure now that his main rival, attorney John A. Altschul, has dropped out of the race. However, Altschul’s name will appear on the April 14 ballot. Koretz, who has no job outside City Hall, is the current mayor and is a longtime Democratic Party insider.

In 1988, he led the field with about $66,000 in campaign spending. Expecting a well-financed challenge from Altschul, Koretz said he has raised more than $50,000, though final spending reports are not due until July.

Koretz occupies the political ground between the three-member majority and council maverick Sal Guarriello. His tendency to doubt himself in public can make him appear indecisive, but Koretz said that it shows he approaches issues with an open mind. He has allied himself with the main city employees’ union and clashed with City Manager Paul Brotzman, most recently over Koretz’s proposal that a policy be implemented to protect whistle-blowers in city government from retaliation.

Robert J. Pierson, 37, who teaches urban planning at USC, has been thrust unexpectedly into the limelight. With Altschul’s withdrawal, he is now the only openly gay candidate in the race, which may prove to be an asset in a city where an estimated one-third of the residents are gay.

A political newcomer, Pierson also is playing the anti-incumbency card. Calling West Hollywood “dysfunctional,” he has prescribed a major restructuring of city commissions through the creation of a network of so-called neighborhood councils.

The other contender is George N. Rumanes, a 66-year-old studio lighting designer. Rumanes has not appeared at campaign debates so far, but he said in an interview that crime-fighting is his top priority.

The Coalition for Economic Survival, which lent its support to Koretz at the last minute in the 1988 race, has so far endorsed only Land. The group’s support in past elections has been tantamount to a victory blessing. Smith and Pierson gained the backing this week of the West Hollywood Democratic Club. Koretz is backed by the county Stonewall Democratic Club, a predominantly gay organization.

All the candidates generally adhere to West Hollywood’s liberal orthodoxy, supporting rent control, gay rights and the city’s diverse array of social programs. Among the roughly 20,000 voters in the city, Democrats outnumber Republicans by more than 3 to 1. (Council elections are nonpartisan.)

But the differences that have emerged stand to grow more stark in the next two weeks. Smith and Pierson have blamed the council for not taking steps to prevent a budget shortfall that has forced $4-million worth of cuts and postponements in spending since the beginning of the fiscal year. And both challengers say that council members and many City Hall staffers are aloof.

Smith, a onetime member of the city’s Business License Commission, was Land’s appointee to the city’s Rent Stabilization Commission. The two broke bitterly last year when Land fired her over Smith’s role in a failed effort to recall Heilman.

Smith said that she is not motivated by hard feelings, but has so far targeted Land because that is the key to breaking up the council majority. She criticized Land’s crucial vote in 1990 in favor of a new business-license tax and has called for repeal of the tax.

Land, who described Smith as her close friend at one time, said that she had removed Smith from the rent commission not to stifle her, but because it was apparent the two disagreed on general goals. And Land insisted that she has not lost touch with residents.

“I listen a lot. My goal is to try to have our decisions be consensus whenever possible. I work to compromise,” she said. Land, a part-time field consultant for the Los Angeles chapter of Hadassah, cited her past work in helping to establish the city’s housing program and in steering businesses though city regulations.

If reelected, she said a top new project would be to find ways to better integrate the city’s large Russian immigrant community, particularly the elderly, into West Hollywood life.

Acknowledging the protests of business owners, Land said she does not regret supporting the new business-license tax. The levy, which is to be used to add parking in the city, will help the city’s commercial prospects over the long run, she said. The tax is expected to raise $1 million a year. It ranges from 48 cents to $1.44 per $1,000 in gross receipts and is the lowest such tax of any city on the Westside, according to city officials. Koretz and Guarriello opposed the tax.

All three challengers support across-the-board spending cuts ranging from 10% to 15%, except for the city’s $9-million contract with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. Koretz and Land oppose such an approach if that would mean cutting social services, which have been spared during past budget reductions. During the recent round of cuts, the council trimmed $800,000 from the budget for the remainder of the fiscal year, a figure close to the 10% level sought by Brotzman.

Koretz says the council has taken steps to fight crime, particularly prostitution in the East End, through the use of special sheriff’s patrols and by lobbying local judges to make it harder for repeat offenders to return to the streets. He also pointed to his sponsorship of a program to reward people who tip off police and the council’s recent decision to try to reduce crime through a block-by-block cleanup of trash and graffiti.

Critics have charged that bicycle and foot patrols are only conspicuous around election time. Only Pierson, though, has voiced support for looking into creating a city police department to replace the contract with the Sheriff’s Department.

Rumanes has focused almost solely on crime, saying that “if people can feel secure and free . . . everything else will fall into place.”

The most sweeping proposals for change have come from Pierson, who was known before the campaign mainly for his stand against the city’s plan to cut down leafy ficus trees along Santa Monica Boulevard and replace them with palm trees. That plan is now on hold.

As a way to decentralize local government, Pierson has proposed that members of citywide commissions be appointed according to neighborhood. In each neighborhood, these commissioners would also serve as a local panel to represent resident sentiment on everything from transportation to zoning proposals. He has also proposed drawing up a detailed plan for Santa Monica Boulevard that would give it the feel of a hometown “Main Street.”