Committee May Have Won Hollow Victory : North Hollywood: Councilman’s appointee’s claim to head group is outshouted. His aides move to disband the PAC and elect a new one.

Teddy Roosevelt’s advice was to speak softly and carry a big stick. To which could be added in North Hollywood: “Or at least carry a bigger one than your opponent.”

A meeting of the frequently quarrelsome North Hollywood Project Area Committee at St. David’s Episcopal Church erupted into a battle of the gavels as two women--each considering herself the legitimate head of the citizens council--attempted to conduct the meeting.

On one side, pounding a huge handmade gavel, was Mildred Weller, president of Concerned Citizens for North Hollywood. On the other, wielding a considerably smaller gavel, was Renee Weitzer, an aide to Councilman John Ferraro, who appointed her interim chairwoman of the committee.

In the end, Weller and her oversized gavel gained control of the meeting, and Weitzer and members of the Community Redevelopment Agency walked out Tuesday night.

But while Weller hammered her way to victory in this battle, it may be a hollow triumph.

On Wednesday, aides to Ferraro asked the Los Angeles city attorney to draft a resolution for a vote of the council, which would disband the current committee and hold an election to choose a new one.

“It’s unfortunate because we had good intentions of coming in and working with the community,” said Erin Egge, Ferraro’s press deputy. “We weren’t doing this with the intention of being threatening.”

The PACs are citizen committees that have no legislative power but advise the Community Redevelopment Agency.

The North Hollywood PAC, which advises on the 740-acre North Hollywood redevelopment zone, has a long history of confrontations between pro-CRA and anti-CRA factions, which on at least one occasion erupted into fistfights. The clash Tuesday night was the latest development in a controversy over who actually is a member of the committee.

In March, Weller and other members of the committee--who are opposed to the CRA and its use of eminent domain to obtain property--accused officials of miscounting votes and refused to seat five members who had been elected in February.

In response to the allegations, the city attorney conducted an investigation and found that the ballots had in fact been miscounted and those five people actually had not been elected. But the city attorney also found that there were problems with the 1991 election too, and three members of the committee who have served since last year should not have been seated.

With the elimination of those members, the committee did not have a quorum and could not conduct business.

But Weller and her supporters rejected the city attorney’s decision to invalidate members who were elected in 1991, all of whom are part of her coalition. She maintains that they are legitimate members of the PAC.

In addition, Weller sent a letter to Ferraro rejecting his attempt to appoint an interim chairman, using his authority as the North Hollywood council representative.

“We feel . . . that your involvement would prejudice the committee’s autonomy and independence,” Weller wrote.

Members of the audience at the meeting Tuesday night expressed concern that the councilman was attempting to take over the committee.

“We are a legal group and he has no right to do this,” Weller said. “Either the council is in control or the community is in control, and that’s been the issue for 12 years.”

Assistant City Atty. Dov S. Lesel, who has been assigned the case, could not be reached for comment.

At the start of Tuesday night’s confrontation, Weitzer attempted to call the meeting to order so she could read a statement issued by Ferraro.

“Members of the community, will you please sit down. I have a statement,” Weitzer said, regulation-size gavel in hand.

But before she could read the statement, Weller calmly pounded her super-gavel.

“No, no, no. You are not recognized to make a statement,” she said. “This is a community PAC meeting, not the City Council.”

The audience of about 50 was divided in allegiance.

“Let her recognize you!” some shouted at Weitzer.

“Let government speak!” some shouted at Weller.

After minutes of back and forth, Weitzer gave up and walked out, followed by members of the CRA and later by some in the audience.

Outside the church, Weitzer said she was prepared to present a statement offering members of the committee various ways to go about electing new members. “We were going to give them two options,” Weitzer said. “Now they have no options.” Inside, Weller and the others conducted an orderly--at some times almost subdued--meeting.

Weller said the clash could have been avoided if Weitzer had simply obeyed the rules of the meeting.

“I think it’s unfortunate that Ferraro sent a messenger who came in and acted like a dictator,” Weller said.

“I told her to please sit down and I would recognize her. She was determined to take over the meeting. I’m chairman of the PAC and I couldn’t allow that.”

Weller said she was acting on the advice of an attorney she and her allies hired to help them prevent dissolution of the committee.

Weller said the group would have considered Ferraro’s offer had they known about it.

“I had no idea what she was going to propose,” Weller said.

Wednesday, in what seemed to be a conciliatory overture, Weller sent Ferraro a letter inviting him to discuss plans for an upcoming election.

Susan Levy, president of the North Hollywood Residents Assn., and many others who attended the meeting supported Weller’s defiance of the councilman’s messenger.

“Basically, they’re trying to bulldoze their way in,” Levy said of Ferraro’s office. “It should be a community effort . . . This PAC is the most democratic way to make sure that the community’s needs are met.”

But as in the past, the meeting baffled some who were unfamiliar with the PAC’s history.

“I’m disappointed . . . that government and the community are not working together,” said Bob Brice, a North Hollywood resident. “It’s confusing to the average resident to grasp what’s going on. I’m as confused as I was before I came.”