ELECTIONS / L.A. CITY COUNCIL : Candidates Knocking for Votes in Last Weekend of Campaigning

Braving topsy-turvy weather and arguing over last-minute attack mailers, candidates for two hotly contested Los Angeles City Council seats in the San Fernando Valley knocked on more doors than the Avon Lady as they launched their final weekend of campaigning before Tuesday’s election.

In the southwest Valley’s 3rd District, embattled Councilwoman Joy Picus caused a stir Saturday with a brochure that sought to paint her challenger, Laura Chick, as anti-police--a charge that drew an angry rebuttal from Chick.

An eleventh-hour mailer also figured in a flap in the 7th District race in the northeast Valley, where candidate Richard Alarcon got into a beef Saturday with a top Los Angeles Republican Party official who disputed Alarcon’s endorsement by a local GOP group.

Saturday morning’s rains temporarily slowed down campaign volunteers. But as skies cleared in the afternoon, it became candidate weather--the early rain keeping many voters indoors, making them easy targets.

Picus, 62, seeking a fifth term, is trying to beat back the formidable challenge posed by Chick, 48, the incumbent’s former field deputy.

In the 7th District, Alarcon, 39, Mayor Tom Bradley’s former top Valley aide, is locked in a fierce fight with Lyle Hall, 53, a former city fire captain. If elected, Alarcon would be the Valley’s first Latino councilman.

Picus and Chick clashed over a Picus attack mailer--sent to more than 40,000 likely voters--featuring a photo of a snarling thug in a ski-mask. “Laura Chick opposed police Chief Willie Williams’ plan to put more police on our streets!” its headline shouted.

What the brochure failed to say is that the plan--listed as Proposition 1 on the April primary ballot--required a tax hike and was defeated in large part by Valley voters. Picus supported the unsuccessful measure, and Chick attacked her for doing so.

At her Reseda campaign headquarters, Chick was so upset about the Picus mailer that she asked her staff to keep the piece out of her sight.

“It’s lies,” Chick told a reporter later as she solicited votes in a precinct near Van Nuys Airport. Her position, Chick said, is that more police are needed but that raising taxes is the wrong way to pay for them.

Tax hikes should be the last resort after City Hall has exhausted all other means of funding more police--including siphoning money from other departments for law enforcement, Chick said.

On her precinct walk--the first since she was laid up by a foot injury nearly two weeks ago--Chick found some unexpected support at the Sells residence in Van Nuys.

At first, it appeared that John and Frances Sells might be hostile because they are angry about noise from the airport and Chick’s husband--as the couple knew--is a former city airport commissioner.

But the Sellses will vote for Chick anyway because Picus, they said, has failed to help them clean up debris from a nearby flood control channel.

Meanwhile, Picus, campaigning with son Larry, encountered voter after voter in a West Hills precinct who said they support her.

Doug Averitt, a sales manager with Colgate-Palmolive and 24-year resident of Lena Avenue, said there was “no specific reason why I’m voting for Picus--it’s just a feeling that she’s doing a good job.”

Averitt also noted that Lena Avenue was once part of Canoga Park but annexed to West Hills with Picus’ help, adding several tens of thousands of dollars to local home values.

In the 7th District, where Hall and Alarcon are battling for the seat being left vacant by Councilman Ernani Bernardi’s retirement, controversy erupted over an attack mailer sent by Alarcon’s camp.

In the brochure, Alarcon, a Democrat, touted his endorsement by the 39th Assembly District Republican Central Committee, a group of local GOP activists in the northeast Valley.

But Keith McCarthy, chairman of the Los Angeles County GOP Central Committee, said state law prohibits both the Democratic and Republican parties from making endorsements in nonpartisan races.

Alarcon spokesman Leo Briones said the local committee would not have issued the endorsement “unless it was legal.” He added, “The point is, that local Republicans have endorsed us.”

Alarcon and Hall both spent hours walking precincts--Hall in Sun Valley and Alarcon in Mission Hills--chatting up voters and trying to steer clear of barking dogs.

Handing out campaign flyers from a plastic Hughes Markets bag, Hall shook hands, asked residents if they needed a ride to the polls Tuesday and switched to Spanish--somewhat halting high school Spanish--when one woman said she spoke no English.

At one home, he was heartily greeted by James A. Rogers, who said he was backing Hall and mayoral candidate Richard Riordan and then launched into a tirade against Rev. Jesse Jackson.

“I have a deep feeling that this city’s going to hell,” said Rogers. “Take that Jesse Jackson. First he’s in Washington . . . and then he’s in South-Central L.A. at the AME Church. He’s just trash. He and his Rainbow Coalition are just a big disservice.”

Hall stood silently.

A block away, Hall encountered more supporters and promised, if elected, to keep his phone number listed and be “accessible and visible to the community.”

Passing one home where one of his campaign signs had toppled over on the lawn, Hall gasped in mock horror: “Oh no! A crippled Lyle Hall sign!”

Alarcon, meanwhile, spent some lonely moments in Sylmar when he showed up for a softball league awards ceremony that had been called off because of rain.

Hurrying back to his Sun Valley campaign headquarters, Alarcon had a small political fire to put out.

Several supporters of mayoral candidate Michael Woo showed up and started attaching Woo signs to cars that Alarcon backers were planning to drive, caravan-style, through the 7th District.

Alarcon ordered the Woo signs taken down, saying he has remained neutral in the mayoral race because he wants to have a good working relationship with whoever wins Tuesday.

But his ruling riled the Woo volunteers.

“It disturbs me that two guys from the same party can’t get together,” said Ralph Gerowitz of North Hills, noting that Alarcon and Woo are both Democrats.

After wolfing down scrambled eggs from a local McDonald’s, Alarcon drove his Ford Escort to a Mission Hills precinct. There he began walking door to door at a brisk pace, hunting up voters.

“Are you going to support me?” he asked Max and Eleanor Zamora.

“Oh, you better believe it!” enthused Eleanor Zamora. “We’ve heard lots of good things about you.”

Passing a house that had a “Lyle Hall for City Council” sign in the front lawn, Alarcon smiled brightly and said: “That’s one we don’t have to call on Election Day.”