LOCAL ELECTIONS / L.A. CITY COUNCIL : 5th District Candidates Talk It Up : Politics: In an appearance before a group of senior citizens, Zev Yaroslavsky and challenger Laura Lake square off on credibility issues.

Challenger Laura Lake accused Los Angeles City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky of running on a platform of broken promises, while Yaroslavsky accused Lake of flip-flopping on a key mass transit issue as the two candidates squared off at a forum last week.

“If you like the way the city has been governed, vote for the incumbent; if you want change, this is the time,” said Lake, an environmental activist who is making a second bid to win the council seat Yaroslavsky has held for 18 years.

Yaroslavsky, meanwhile, accused his rival of having once favored an above-ground light rail system for the San Fernando Valley, which she denied.

The exchange took place Thursday before a group of senior citizens in Van Nuys.

Both candidates voiced support Thursday for the underground rail line.

The third candidate in the 5th Council District race, city building inspector Michael Rosenberg of North Hollywood, used most of his time during a two-hour question-and-answer session to press for eliminating waste and inefficiency at City Hall.

Of the 50 people who attended the session, fewer than two dozen were residents of the 5th District, which includes the Fairfax District, Century City, Westwood, Bel-Air and the southern San Fernando Valley. Others came to hear four challengers to Councilwoman Joy Picus in the 3rd District. Picus did not attend.

Except for the brief “no-I-didn’t-yes-you-did” exchange regarding the light rail line, the joint appearance by Yaroslavsky and Lake was mostly non-confrontational.

For at least a few in the audience, the session did little to help them make a choice.

“I was disappointed that Laura doesn’t seem to be as good a speaker as I thought she was, and yet I don’t think Zev has ever done much for the Valley,” said Belle Palmer, president of the 125-member Seniors for Action, which sponsored the gathering.

Yaroslavsky, who showed up an hour late after giving a noon speech downtown, said crime is the most important issue the city faces.

The councilman said he is proud that spending for law enforcement represented the single largest percentage of the city’s budget during his tenure as chairman of the council’s budget and finance committee.

Yaroslavsky called approval of Proposition 1, a measure on the April 20 ballot that would put another 1,000 police officers on the streets, “critical to the survival of the city.”

In a theme she clearly hopes to use during the remainder of the campaign, Lake said new leadership is needed if Los Angeles is to solve its problems.

And in a swipe at Yaroslavsky, she likened his call for more police to “promises (we heard) four years ago for more police, and it didn’t happen.” She added, “These are election promises again.”