Decision ’93 / A Look at...

The reelection bid of Councilwoman Joy Picus--feminist, critic of big development and champion of the San Fernando Valley--is facing well-financed opposition from several ex-allies who say she has grown stale and ineffectual.

Speculation that she is in hot water does not appear to dismay Picus. Her popularity with her middle-class, heavily Jewish constituency in the West Valley has been underrated before.

“The media always says I’m in trouble,” she said.

But Picus, a former League of Women Voters activist and ex-employee of the Jewish Federation Council, confronts several new problems in 1993.

Among them:

* An anti-incumbency mood that spells trouble for a 16-year City Hall veteran who has openly considered running for Congress, mayor and the County Board of Supervisors in the last year.

* Her widely publicized losing effort to block the Warner Ridge project in the Valley.

* Her problems raising campaign money.

“It looks like Joy’s in a runoff,” said attorney Roger Stannard, a civic activist whom Picus appointed to a Woodland Hills planning panel. If no candidate in the April 20 election gets more than 50% of the vote, the two top vote-getters will go into a runoff election.

Picus strategist Robert Carrick scoffs at the prediction, citing a poll that says 47% of 3rd District voters prefer her and that 32% are undecided.

Over the years, Picus, a housewife until her 40s, has emerged as one of the council’s strongest advocates for women, supporting pay equity for female city employees and rules to require more child-care facilities in new developments.

Five candidates, including three former associates, are challenging her.

Laura Chick, the race’s top fund-raiser, was a Picus field deputy for nearly three years; LAPD Sgt. Dennis Zine was a visible fixture in Picus’ prior reelection campaigns, and homeowner activist Robert Gross was Picus’ top ally in the Warner Ridge fight.

Also running are Woodland Hills businessmen Charles Nixon III and Mort Diamond, a former hot-dog vendor who got about 6% of the vote running against Picus in 1989.

In recent years, Picus has been in several notable anti-development brawls.

Her dramatic fight to block Warner Ridge, an office complex proposed for Woodland Hills, dominated her current term and left her politically bloodied.

The City Council backed Picus in the fight, but the developer replied with a $100-million lawsuit accusing her of improperly torpedoing his plan for political, not land use, reasons.

In 1992, after several costly courtroom defeats, the council was forced to accept a large-scale Warner Ridge project very much like the one it had rejected.

Picus has been a sharp-tongued voice for Valley interests. In 1992 she opposed a redistricting plan to deprive the Valley of one of its two school board seats and tried to establish a Valley-based planning commission. Both initiatives failed.

In the campaign, Picus has been the target of two major complaints: that she is ineffectual and that she is unfriendly to business.

A compromise on the Warner Ridge project was possible, Gross said.

“If Joy had exercised leadership, she would’ve taken the two sides by the scruff of their necks and forced them to reach an agreement,” he said. As it is, the Warner Ridge developer won most of what he had sought.

“I don’t think I’ve ever heard Joy talk about business without calling it greedy or developers without saying they are whiny and selfish,” said Chick, wife of a politically well-connected insurance executive and former city airport commissioner.

Chick’s business-friendly message and her husband’s connections have enabled her to tap corporate interests and people affiliated with Mayor Tom Bradley’s Administration for financial contributions that are normally available just to incumbents.

As of mid-March, Chick had raised more than $105,000. Zine and Gross had raised $25,000 between them.

Picus had raised $95,000, a disappointing amount when measured against the $263,000 she amassed in her 1989 campaign. That year, Picus outspent her challengers by better than a 4-1 margin and only narrowly won reelection with 52% of the vote.

Besides money, Chick has been endorsed by diverse groups, including the gay-oriented Stonewall Democratic Club, the Democratic Party of the San Fernando Valley and the League of Conservation Voters.

Chick’s stature has been confirmed in part by her challengers who, at times, have attacked her as vigorously as Picus.

“Her election would mean politics as usual,” Gross says of Chick, citing her Establishment backers.

The Zine campaign also has sniped at Chick while seeking to define itself by advocating Valley secession from the city of Los Angeles. The Valley is not getting its fair share of municipal services, including police protection, so it should secede, Zine contends in a pitch designed to reawaken a decades-old passion of Valley conservatives.

But the police sergeant also says that if the threat of secession produces a reallocation of municipal services, secession may not be needed.

“It can be a bargaining tool,” he said.

The Candidates Laura Newman Chick, 48, is a consultant for Consensus Planning Group, a community relations firm in North Hollywood. Previously, she served as Councilwoman Joy Picus’ chief field deputy. She has a bachelor’s degree in history from UCLA and a master’s degree in social work from USC. She is married and has four children.

Morton S. Diamond, 61, is a free-lance paralegal. Previously, he has been a businessman and supermarket manager. He attended Chaffey College in Rancho Cucamonga, Cal Poly Pomona and Mission College in Sylmar. Married, he has six children.

Robert J. Gross, 60, is a procurement manager for the Kahr Bearing Co. in Burbank, which makes precision bearings for the military. He attended the University of Wisconsin. Married, he has four children.

Charles Dana Nixon III, 49, is semi-retired and invests in the renovation and sale of homes. He has a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Cal State Northridge and a master’s degree in marriage and family counseling from Azusa Pacific. He is married and has an adult son.

Joy Picus, 62, was first elected to the council in 1977. She has a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Wisconsin. She is married and has three children.

Dennis P. Zine, 45, is a sergeant at the LAPD Valley Traffic Division in Van Nuys. He attended West Los Angeles College and several Cal State universities. He is divorced and has two children.

Leading Issues Crime: All candidates but Picus oppose a ballot measure to raise taxes to hire 1,000 more police officers. Picus also wants money from existing revenue. Zine would lease L.A. International Airport to hire officers. Chick, Diamond would tap redevelopment, harbor, airport accounts. Nixon wants desk-bound officers on patrol. Gross puts police funding at top of budget priorities.

Transit: All but Diamond and Chick oppose planned elevated Metro Rail route over the Ventura Freeway. Diamond backs it. Chick wants more information. Picus and Gross favor a Burbank-Chandler route. Nixon dislikes freeway route but says Burbank-Chandler may be no better. Zine wants major East Valley streets one-way during rush hours, linking commuters to express buses in Sepulveda Basin.

Pierce College: Chick supports the sale of Woodland Hills college’s 350-acre farm to fund programs if private development is compatible with the school. Picus, Zine and Diamond want to leave the farm alone. Nixon says it should become a park or be used for affordable housing. Gross wants it preserved, possibly for campus expansion.

Term limits: All but Picus support ballot measures to limit elected city officials to two terms.