PERSPECTIVE ON THE MAYOR’S RACE : Candidates Cut Through the Campaign Distortions : The real question facing voters on Tuesday is, who can make the city work for everyone, not just the wealthy few?

During this campaign, voters have heard a lot of charges and countercharges by the candidates. But while vigorous debate and a frank exchange of ideas are vital to the democratic process, there are limits.

Richard Riordan has now adopted a manufactured sense of disappointment over the “tone” of the campaign. But the facts are clear: Of the 24 candidates in the primary, it was Riordan who put on the first negative ad, attacking both me and Assemblyman Richard Katz for running our campaigns in accordance with the campaign contributions and spending limits law passed by voters in 1990--a measure Riordan supported at the time.

Again, after sanctimoniously pledging on election night to run a positive runoff campaign, Riordan’s first television commercial was negative. He has spent more than $1 million flooding voters’ mailboxes with brochures accusing me of being responsible for everything from homelessness to prostitution.

I believe that voters have a right to demand the truth and the facts about the candidates. That’s why I appreciate this opportunity to refute some of Riordan’s more outrageous distortions.

* Providing more police: Riordan has accused me of voting against expanding the LAPD. This is not true, and is designed to deflect attention from Riordan’s own opposition to Chief Willie Williams’ attempts to put more officers on the streets.

Since my election to the City Council, I have consistently supported every effort to increase the size of the LAPD, a fact pointed out recently in The Times by Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky. This includes the ballot measures in November and April that were part of Williams’ plan to add 1,000 officers. It was Riordan who actively opposed both measures, and even contributed thousands of dollars against the November ballot issue.

Riordan’s alternative for funding more police--leasing out LAX--has been exposed as nothing more than a scam. Independent studies have shown that Riordan’s wildly inflated, wholly unsubstantiated numbers just don’t add up.

In contrast, I have outlined a comprehensive plan to fight crime, gang violence and graffiti. Part of that plan includes building up the LAPD to 10,000 officers from its current strength of 7,800.

* Guns in school: My position is clear: Students caught carrying guns to school should be removed from the classroom immediately--but not thrown out onto the streets, as Riordan advocates. They should be put in tightly supervised, military-style boot camps such as those run by the county for juvenile offenders. The worst thing we could possibly do is throw a 14- or 16-year-old kid with a loaded .44 out onto the streets with no supervision and no place to go during the day.

* Hollywood : Riordan has cynically chosen to trash one neighborhood during this campaign. One especially scurrilous mailer accused me of being personally responsible for every rape in Hollywood.

But we’ve made progress in Hollywood. In some major categories, crimes are down significantly in LAPD’s Hollywood Division. Homicides are down 45% from this time last year and rapes have fallen 17%. With the institution of active neighborhood patrols and community-watch groups and the recent addition of private security patrols on Hollywood Boulevard, we will continue to see improvement.

But the fact is, Hollywood is not an island. The tragic ATM stabbing that took Sherri Forman’s life happened in Sherman Oaks. The shocking armed carjacking that took the life of Naghi Ghoraishy was in Chatsworth. Crime is a citywide problem and must be attacked citywide.

* Job creation: One of the central themes of Riordan’s campaign is that he has created thousands of jobs and that I have no record on job creation. Again, this is a distortion of both of our records.

I have focused on keeping the entertainment industry here in Southern California. My efforts have included a successful loan fund for small to medium-sized businesses that make a 10-year commitment to stay in Hollywood and creation of an entertainment “czar” position in the mayor’s office to cut red tape and streamline location-shooting permitting processes. As mayor, I will build on these efforts as models for citywide job creation and retention.

While Riordan bemoans job losses and business flight, he has been an integral part of the greed-driven leveraged-buyout frenzy of the Reagan era, which cost thousands of jobs while making a handful of rich investors like Riordan even richer.

The real question facing the voters is, whom can you trust to make L.A. work--for all of us, not just for the wealthy few? Riordan has demonstrated time and again that we can’t trust his word. I have leveled with the voters during this campaign, just as I have during my time in public office, even when my positions have been politically unpopular. And I will continue to tell voters the truth when I am mayor.