ELECTIONS / CITY COUNCIL : Council Contenders Lining Up : Politics: It’s not just the mayoral race that is getting crowded. Sharp contests are expected in three districts, including Zev Yaroslavsky’s.

While attention is focused on the most wide-open race for mayor of Los Angeles in many years, three contested City Council races are quietly taking shape on the Westside.

A potentially bitter rematch is in the offing between longtime Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky and slow-growth advocate Laura Lake.

Meanwhile, Councilman Michael Woo’s decision to run for mayor instead of seeking reelection has set off a scramble to fill the council seat he is vacating.

And veteran Councilman Marvin Braude, who coasted to reelection four years ago when no challenger stepped forward, may face several opponents this time around.

The outline of the council contests became clear Monday--the deadline for candidates to declare their intention to run in the April 20 election. The final lineup will not be known until next month, when candidates must submit nominating petitions and pay filing fees.

But at this point, it is clear that Yaroslavsky, a well-known and powerful councilman, will face another spirited challenge from Lake, a UCLA environmental sciences professor and outspoken advocate of slow growth.

The once-a-decade process of redrawing political lines to reflect changes in population has meant significant changes in the shape of council districts.

The boundaries of Yaroslavsky’s realigned 5th District have been pushed farther out into the San Fernando Valley and into Westside neighborhoods he has not represented. As before, however, the district contains some of the city’s most affluent territory, including such communities as Westwood, Bel-Air, Fairfax, Sherman Oaks and part of Studio City.

With anti-incumbent sentiment still strong and the city suffering from a bewildering array of problems from crime to a depressed economy, the five-term council veteran is leaving nothing to chance.

“I’m going to work hard and not take anything for granted,” Yaroslavsky, 44, said in an interview. He said he will walk precincts and get acquainted with new constituents.

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Because of the troubled local economy, Yaroslavsky said, he thinks that Lake has “a much tougher mountain to climb” in her second race against him.

Four years ago, Yaroslavsky captured 62.6% of the vote in a victory over Lake. “I think I have a broad base of support,” he said.

To bolster the case, he has distributed a long list of endorsements from elected officials, law enforcement representatives, environmentalists, homeowner associations, women’s groups and business interests.

But Lake said voters are hungry for change at City Hall. “Our city is in terrible trouble,” she said. “It is in critical condition.”

She said she hopes to tap the same wave of support for women candidates that helped propel Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer to the U.S. Senate in November.

Lake questioned whether voters in the district think that the city is better off after Yaroslavsky’s nearly 18 years in office.

Echoing a theme from her first campaign--that overdevelopment has damaged the city’s quality of life--she said, “I feel the district has been plundered by special interests.”

Already, the two candidates are trading rhetorical potshots in the controversy over Fox Studios’ plan to expand its office and production facilities in Century City.

“The Fox debate is not about jobs,” Lake said at a public hearing earlier this month. “The real debate is about keeping this city livable.”

Lake, 45, said she supports developments that are planned so that the quality of life is not diminished. “The time for sacrificing the environment in the name of business is over,” she said. “It’s smart to invest in the environment and not ignore it.”

But Yaroslavsky, who favors a slightly scaled-down plan for Fox’s expansion, accused Lake of being willing to issue “an eviction notice for a major employer like 20th Century Fox Studios.”

In a preview of the coming campaign, he said, “Part of the quality of life is an economic base.”

Two other candidates have filed a declaration of intent to run against Yaroslavsky: Robert Neil Marcus, a Sherman Oaks attorney, and Michael Loren Rosenberg, a city building inspector from North Hollywood.

In what could prove the most freewheeling council race this year, 15 candidates--from former office holders to political neophytes--have declared their intention to run for the 13th District seat being vacated by Woo.

So far, the candidates constitute the largest field in any of the city’s eight council races. It is a very diverse group--no surprise, given the diversity of the district, which runs from Hollywood east to Glassell Park and includes all or part of Los Feliz, Silver Lake and Eagle Rock.

In terms of name recognition, the most prominent candidate vying to succeed Woo is Jackie Goldberg, a former Los Angeles school board member. Along with television executive Conrado Terrazas and AIDS health care provider Michael Weinstein, Goldberg is one of three openly gay or lesbian candidates.

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Other 13th District candidates include Tom LaBonge, a longtime aide to City Council President John Ferraro, and Tom Riley, a former Teamsters Union organizer and recent aide to Boxer in her Senate campaign.

The other candidates who declared their intentions to seek the office, and the designations they listed in their declarations are: William Thomas Martin III, an unemployed househusband and father; Virginia Stock Johannessen, community advocate; Elizabeth Michael, businesswoman; Gilbert Carrasco, executive marketing consultant, and Lily Yeelam Lee, public administrator and gerontologist.

Also, Sal Genovese, health care consultant; David Davis, engineer, inventor and musician; Theodore Neubauer, veterans coordinator; Adelina Ruth Sorkin, city commissioner, and Efren Litimco Mamaril, a special assistant to the mayor.

In the 11th District, Councilman Braude is seeking to extend his 28-year council career. Although he faced no opposition in 1989, five would-be challengers have declared their intention to run this spring.

They are Daniel W. Pritikin, a family law practitioner from Los Angeles; Jerry Reid Douglas, a conservation district director from Woodland Hills; John B. Handal II, a restaurateur from Los Angeles; Patrick M. Blackburn, a West Los Angeles businessman, and Mary Lou Holte of Van Nuys.

The district includes Brentwood, Pacific Palisades and part of West Los Angeles on the Westside and extends across the Santa Monica Mountains to take in much of the western San Fernando Valley from Van Nuys to Woodland Hills.

Westside Council Districts

Elections will be held in April in three Los Angeles council districts that include parts of the Westside. Last year’s redistricting altered the boundaries of all three districts. Here is a brief look at the racial and ethnic makeup of the new districts.

5th District: Fairfax, Beverlywood, Westwood, Bel-Air, Sherman Oaks

Anglo Black Latino Asian % of total population 81 3 10 6 % of registered voters 92 3 3 2

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11th District: West Los Angeles, Brentwood, Pacific Palisades, Woodland Hills, Encino

Anglo Black Latino Asian % of total population 72 3 18 8 % of registered voters 91 2 4 3

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13th District: Hollywood, Silver Lake, Echo Park, Glassell Park, Atwater Village

Anglo Black Latino Asian % of total population 21 3 57 20 % of registered voters 61 9 24 6