Lawmakers, Candidates Offer Cures for L.A.’s Ills : Politics: Valley Democratic, GOP leaders shun big-government remedies but disagree on plans for the social and economic repair of the riot-torn city.

The Los Angeles riots have triggered a rare election-year dialogue among San Fernando Valley political leaders about the causes and cures of urban unrest--even though their own suburban domains were largely untouched by the disorder.

“We can’t draw a line on a map and keep it out,” said state Assemblyman Terry B. Friedman (D-Los Angeles), referring to the fallout from the riots.

State Assemblywoman Paula L. Boland (R-Granada Hills) agreed. “Suburban California needs to link hands with those in the inner city to work together. It’s a vital issue for all of us. We are one state.”

The outcry that turned into a lawless tumult after the announcement of the not-guilty verdicts in the Rodney G. King case barely touched the northeast San Fernando Valley in comparison to elsewhere in the city.

But the smell of smoke in the air, the citywide curfew, the National Guardsmen patrolling the malls and the persistent televised scenes of looting and burning occurring just south of the Santa Monica Mountains made it clear that Valley residents and their leaders cannot ignore what occurred.

Taking their cue from the White House, Valley Republican leaders last week were quick to blame the rioting on liberal social programs. “The riots were a sign of the breakdown of the family,” said Boland, whose district takes in the northwest Valley and stretches north to Castaic. “Social programs give rise to violence.”

But local Democratic representatives were just as quick to reject that assessment.

“I certainly don’t think President Bush can get away with the idea he can blame Great Society anti-poverty programs as a cause,” Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles) said.

Waxman, a liberal pillar in Congress who represents the affluent southern part of the Valley and the Westside, points his own finger--but at GOP indifference and greed in the decay of the nation’s metropolitan areas.

Yet, when it comes to repairing and rebuilding the estimated $785 million in damage caused by the rioting, Valley Democrats have joined Republicans in steering clear of traditional big-government remedies.

State Sen. David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles), for one, opposes a plan put forth by Sen. Art Torres (D-Los Angeles) to enact a quarter-cent sales tax surcharge to pay for the reconstruction.

His position on the sales tax puts Roberti, a longtime Democratic Party leader now running for the first time in a district entirely in the Valley, in agreement with pension plan consultant Carol Rowen, his GOP challenger in the upcoming special June runoff election. The pair is vying to fill the seat left vacant by the resignation of former Democratic Sen. Alan Robbins.

Although the Torres plan has been likened to the statewide sales tax surcharge used to rebuild the San Francisco area after the 1989 earthquake, some reject the comparison. “What happened to San Francisco residents was not of their making,” said state Assemblywoman Cathie Wright (R-Simi Valley), who added that she is in no mood to reward lawlessness.

State Assemblywoman Barbara Friedman (D-Los Angeles) is also troubled by the sales tax plan--on old-fashioned Democratic grounds. A sales tax hits low-income consumers hardest, complained Friedman, who is running for a seat that extends from North Hollywood to Canoga Park.

Although the need to rebuild the city’s burned-out districts is universally recognized, there is disagreement over what tools are needed to accomplish the huge task and to tackle the root causes of the unrest.

For conservatives, such as Boland and Wright, the inner-city tumult only underscores the need for welfare reform. They contend that a society that instills self-worth through jobs will create citizens who are law-abiding and responsible.

Wright is hopeful that the time may be ripe to push again for passage of Gov. Pete Wilson’s welfare reform package--defeated earlier this spring by the Legislature’s Democratic majority. The package would reduce benefits by 10% immediately and another 15% in six months for most families with an able-bodied adult. There would be financial incentives for teen-age mothers to stay at home and in school, and women on welfare would not receive increased benefits by bearing additional children.

Wright also believes that the “smartest thing government can do is get out of the way and let the free enterprise system” work its magic in the inner city.

To that end, Wright supports a plan by state Assemblyman Pat Nolan (R-Glendale) to establish so-called enterprise zones in the riot-ravaged areas. In enterprise zones, businesses are given tax breaks and other incentives to hire the unemployed.

Nolan, who because of reapportionment now represents part of Hollywood, also wants to lift government regulations in the riot zones. “New businesses shouldn’t have to wait six months for permits and inspections,” he said.

“Government wasn’t able to protect people for 36 hours” during the rioting, Nolan said, so “why should people who want to rebuild their neighborhoods go down and kiss all the bureaucrats’ rings to go into business.”

In the search for solutions to the inner-city ills that spawn unrest, others see a key role for schools. An educated citizenry does not loot and burn, maintains Marian LaFollette, who is challenging Wright in the Republican primary in the 19th Senate District. “Unfortunately, parents want more for their children, but can’t get it” under the current failed school system, she said.

But educational improvements will come if public schools must compete for resources, according to LaFollette, who champions a reform plan in which parents could pick the public schools they want their children to attend.

Assemblyman Terry Friedman also believes educational reform will be critical to any lasting urban reconstruction effort. Current big-city public school systems are unwieldy, remote and bureaucratic, he complained.

The answer is to “decentralize and empower the parents” to run the schools, maintains Friedman, a supporter of proposed state legislation to do just that. If parents had a say in running their local public schools, their support and interest would create educational accountability and excellence, Friedman said.

In post-riot Los Angeles, it has become commonplace to blame the violence on those who had no financial stake in their communities.

Inspired by this analysis, Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar) is proposing to establish a community development corporation owned by inner-city residents and financed by private donations and government relief funds.

This entity--whose duties, assets and management are outlined in a three-page “concept paper” Katz has circulated among community leaders--would help bankroll private companies in the inner city in return for an equity interest in them.

His idea is still very much in its infancy, Katz admitted. “This is not a get-rich-quick scheme,” he said. “It’s a way for residents to take control of their lives and to have a stake in their communities,” he said.

Not surprisingly, many Valley political leaders see a prominent role for law enforcement in the reconstruction effort. Without adequate police protection, private investors will shy away from South Los Angeles, they contend.

“We should put less money into subsidizing rebuilding and more of it into making sure we have top-notch police and fire protection there,” said John Drew, a college instructor and slow-growth movement leader running in the Republican primary for the 19th Senate seat being vacated by Sen. Ed Davis.

“It’s just like nobody’s going to invest in a Third World country if they think it isn’t safe,” Drew said.

Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Panorama City) said the most startling lesson he learned from the riots was in regard to the Los Angeles Police Department. “I am stunned to learn that Philadelphia, where our new police chief is coming from, with one-half the population and one-fourth the area of Los Angeles, has more police officers than Los Angeles,” Berman said recently. “That’s incredible.”

Berman said the city’s first priority should be to beef up its police force.

Contributing to this story were Alan C. Miller, Mark Gladstone, Jack Cheevers, Amy Pyle, James Quinn and Sam Enriquez.

* MORE POLITICAL FALLOUT: B1