‘92 WESTSIDE ELECTIONS : ELECTIONS / SANTA MONICA CITY COUNCIL : Voters Show Home Is Where Their Heart Is : Rent control: It’s still a vital issue. The renters rights coalition elected three of four of its council candidates.

The renters rights coalition retained its grip on Santa Monica on Tuesday by electing three out of four of its City Council candidates, with political newcomer Asha Greenberg winning the fourth slot with a strong public safety message.

Santa Monica was clearly not infected with anti-incumbency fever, because the two most popular candidates among voters were the two sitting council members seeking a second term. Councilwoman Judy Abdo was the top vote-getter in a field of 18, followed by Mayor Ken Genser. Both were on the Santa Monicans for Renters Rights (SMRR) slate.

Abdo said the victory showed that, despite problems, the electorate “pretty much approves of the direction” of the current council. “I think voters wanted to vote for women,” she said. “Voters knew rent control was an issue.”

Greenberg, a Los Angeles prosecutor with law enforcement and homeowner support, took third place. She said her victory showed that “the public safety issue transcends concern about rent control” and vowed to take on the SMRR-controlled council members who “run the city like a private club.”

The fourth spot went to SMRR slate member Paul Rosenstein, a planning commissioner, despite an effort by what he calls “no-growthers” to stop him. The remaining SMRR-backed candidate, Ellen Goldin, finished fifth.

To the disappointment of forces not aligned with SMRR, they were unable to turn public discontent over the handling of the city’s homeless crisis into more seats on the council.

They acknowledged that their efforts had not been cohesive. As a result, the SMRR challengers’ vote was split among 14 candidates.

For example, three candidates who pooled their efforts on a law-and-order slate organized by homeowner-activist Leslie Dutton received an average of about 3,000 votes. If those votes had gone to sixth-place finisher Anthony Blain or seventh-place finisher Tom Pyne, one of them could have been elected.

“I hope Leslie is happy this morning,” said Jean Sedillos, backer of a competing “Save Our City” slate, which endorsed Blain, Pyne, Greenberg and Alan Weston.

As it stands, the election leaves the council with a 5-2 renters rights majority. The election of Rosenstein over slate-mate Goldin was a victory for the moderate forces within SMRR. Goldin was endorsed and pushed by several slow-growth groups.

Rosenstein, it turned out, had an easier time winning the citywide election than getting endorsed by his own group, which was bitterly divided over the development issue.

The militant slow-growth forces in SMRR, including Genser and Councilman Kelly Olsen, tried to block Rosenstein, while pushing for Goldin. At one point, Genser went so far as to say he might not run on a slate with Rosenstein.

“I feel like I’ve clawed my way up from oblivion,” Rosenstein said Wednesday. “It’s been a scramble all the way.”

In addition to overcoming dissension in his own group, Rosenstein was attacked in campaign mailers for his record on the Planning Commission, as was fellow Planning Commissioner Pyne and, to a lesser extent, Abdo.

But Rosenstein, echoing several other candidates, said development was not the issue on voters’ minds this year. “In all my discussions with voters, virtually the only question I ever got asked was about the homeless,” Rosenstein said.

In forums and a Los Angeles Times questionnaire, Rosenstein said he would have voted to fire City Atty. Robert M. Myers for his refusal to obey council policy directions about the homeless, whereas Goldin was one of the few candidates who said she would not have fired Myers.

Myers endorsed Goldin, and no one else, in a mailer sent to renters that most thought would have some impact because Myers wrote and defended the rent control law.

But, Rosenstein said, “I didn’t find any support for Myers anywhere.”

Genser was expected to run first among voters because he is mayor and had broad endorsements from law enforcement, SMRR and residents groups concerned with slow growth.

He said he thought that the movement to elect women candidates was a factor in the vote totals. In addition to finishing first, third and fifth, the one woman on the conservative slate, Edith Shane, received almost 1,000 votes more than her two male slate mates, John Baron and A. Marco Turk.

Genser said he thought that anti-incumbency sentiment may have trimmed the vote for him and Abdo. Their vote to fire Myers cut both ways, Genser said.

But overall, he said, “a lot of people approve of the job we’re doing.”

Voters did not, however, approve of increasing council members’ pay. A measure to raise the council salary for the first time since 1946 failed miserably.

About 60% of the voters rejected a proposal to raise council salaries to $600 a month, from $50, and provide health insurance for council members, even though the pay raise was packaged with term limits to make it more palatable to voters.

Although $600 is in line with council salaries in cities of similar size, the raise was opposed by many as a step toward professional politicians.