ELECTIONS / L.A. CITY COUNCIL : Chick, Picus Stress Business Issues During Debate in City Council Race

Taking their often bitter political rivalry to Main Street, Los Angeles City Councilwoman Joy Picus proudly told a business group Tuesday that she voted to kill several tax hike plans while challenger Laura Chick said the incumbent paid only “lip service” to their concerns.

Tuesday’s debate between the 3rd District candidates--milder than others--took place before 120 San Fernando Valley business people amid new reports about the heavy impacts that defense industry cuts are having on the Valley’s economic well-being.

Picus, 62, is seeking a fifth term and Chick, 48, is a former aide to the incumbent. The election is June 8.

Challenged by debate-moderator Gary Barr, an Encino attorney, to explain what they would do to stop business flight, Chick pledged “to clean up this mess of permit processing” that ensnares businesses in a lengthy bureaucratic maze before they can build or expand.

“I want to see that it doesn’t take two or five years to get a building permit, or eight to 10 years for the Warner Center and Reseda specific plans to be adopted,” Chick said.

Picus, by contrast, has “only paid lip service” to their legitimate concerns, Chick told the business audience hosted by the Woodland Hills Chamber of Commerce.

Instead of voting, like Picus, to support a hike in property taxes to pay for more police, Chick said she would first see to it that government was as “lean and mean” as possible before resorting to higher taxes. Picus supported Proposition 1, the measure defeated on the April 20 ballot, to increase taxes for police.

When asked about development, Chick accused the incumbent, who has been involved in several notable clashes with builders, of being “very divisive” by trying to pit homeowners against the business community when, in fact, she said, “we have our feet in both communities and we need to sit down and listen to each other.”

Chick even slipped an economic message into a question about the candidates’ positions on a proposal by Councilman Marvin Braude to ban smoking in all restaurants in the city.

Although declining to take a position on the smoking ban plan, Chick tried to show empathy with business interests when she observed that the “restaurant industry is already seriously hurting” in today’s economy. Some in the industry have contended that a smoking ban will hurt business.

Meanwhile, Picus said she had “been there” when business leaders had sought protection from tax increases.

Here, the incumbent noted that she had voted against the City Council taking a stand of support for a state measure to tax business real estate at a higher rate than residential real estate and had voted against City Hall proposals to raise local business taxes.

Picus said business flight from the city can’t be significantly stopped until “our streets are safe and our schools are good.”

But she also acknowledged that the “the City Hall psychology” needs to be changed to be more “customer friendly.”

“People at the counter (of city government) must come to see themselves as expediters, not regulators, as part of a service, not a process,” Picus said, in an apparent effort not to be outdone in criticizing the city bureaucracy.

Picus, finally, was adamant in her support of the Braude plan to ban smoking in restaurants. “I’ve been Marvin’s closest ally,” Picus said.

Although business issues dominated Tuesday’s debate, the pair got in some familiar digs at each other and developed their favorite themes.

Picus continued to attack Chick as the insider candidate, not the voice for change. “Laura, the idea that you’re a fresh face, untainted . . . is absurd,” Picus said, citing as her principal evidence the fact that Chick’s husband, Robert, was a top commission appointee of Mayor Tom Bradley for nearly a decade.

“The only thing you’ve changed is your address,” Picus added, in a reference to Chick’s recent move from Sherman Oaks to Reseda, an area in the 3rd District. Only residents may run for a council seat.

For her part, Chick continued to trumpet her central message: that Picus, the status quo candidate, has been ineffectual in stopping the slow erosion of the Valley’s quality of life.

“I moved to the San Fernando Valley nearly 20 years ago to find a nice, peaceful life,” Chick said. But what she’s found in recent years, the challenger said, is all these “precious qualities slipping through my fingers.”

CITY COUNCIL RACES

None of the candidates considered political neophytes. B9