As Election Nears, the Mud Is in the Mail

Last slings: For anyone concerned that Tom LaBonge and Jackie Goldberg might not respect the time-honored tradition of using the mail for last-minute fudging and mudslinging in their 13th District Los Angeles City Council race, fear not!

Attacking Goldberg’s record on school safety during her eight years on the Los Angeles school board, a LaBonge mailer accuses Goldberg of allowing anarchy in the schools, almost making it appear that she favors guns and illicit drugs on campus.

“Jackie Goldberg always seems to be tolerant of those caught violating the law,” LaBonge says.

For what it’s worth, LaBonge is endorsed by the Los Angeles Police Protective League, and Goldberg is endorsed by the Los Angeles School Police Officers Assn.

Goldberg, meanwhile, whipped off a mailer that portrays the election as a choice between her and the National Rifle Assn.

The mailer features a photo of a May 13 press release by the Westside Firearms Assn., a local NRA affiliate, endorsing LaBonge, along with the Goldberg line: “You can’t trust Tom LaBonge to fight for safer neighborhoods.”

Never mind that LaBonge--like Goldberg--advocates gun control, and that the group quickly withdrew its endorsement at his request, admitting it had goofed.

For those counting: One more mail day before the election.

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Flack merchants: The West Hollywood Marketing Corp. was set up seven years ago to get the city better press coverage and sell the world a “Creative City” image--basically a PR job.

So it raised eyebrows when recent announcements from the corporation--from a press kit on muralist Mike McNeilly to a preview of a recent gay travel convention--started arriving from a Venice PR firm.

Was this a case of the publicist hiring a publicist?

Not so, insisted Anastasia Kostoff Mann, who heads the corporation’s board of directors. She said the corporation had always used a PR agency; the new one just happened to be doing a more noticeable job.

Mann said the marketing group pays The Blaze Co. about $3,500 a month to get stories on West Hollywood in U.S. travel-trade publications, plus newspapers and magazines as far away as France. The move is one sign that the corporation has shifted its focus away from “image enhancement” to drawing more tourists and new businesses, one area where critics say the quasi-public agency has failed.

Another sure sign of the new travel emphasis is the board’s recent decision to give itself a new name. The corporation will be called the West Hollywood Convention and Visitors Bureau.

The new name has not been announced yet officially. That will probably come from the PR company.

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Tower power: Morris Griffin, a regular on the basketball courts at Venice Beach, says he has a solution to stopping crime and violence along Ocean Front Walk: towers.

Install prison-like observation towers along the boardwalk at strategic points with a police officer in each, Griffin says. As officers scan the passing parade, they would be able to contact police on the ground by radio to alert them to trouble.

Griffin, who has been pitching his plan to the City Council recently during public comment periods, contends that it would lead to increased public safety and perhaps even allow the police to scale back on the number of officers deployed on the ground.

So far, council members have listened politely to Griffin but offered no comment. One of the shorter council members, however, took note of Griffin’s size (he stands 6-foot-5), and was overheard telling a colleague: “That guy doesn’t need a tower to see what’s going on.”

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Council meetings this week:

* Beverly Hills: no meeting.

* Culver City: no meeting.

* Los Angeles: 10 a.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. 200 N. Spring St. (213) 485-3126.

* Malibu: no meeting.

* Santa Monica: 6:30 p.m. Tuesday. 1685 Main St. (310) 393-9975.

* West Hollywood: 7 p.m. Monday. West Hollywood Park Auditorium, 647 N. San Vicente Blvd. (310) 854-7460.

Staff writers Ken Ellingwood, Ron Russell and Lee Harris contributed to this report.