New Council Members Start With the Basics : City Hall: On their first full day of business, the four newcomers grappled with such issues as rivalry over seating, picking a color for office walls and finding phones that work.

Rudy Svorinich gave his new peers a lesson in the phonetic intricacies of his last name. Laura Chick learned where they keep the junk food. Jackie Goldberg struggled all day to find a working phone line. And Richard Alarcon had to fight off one of the upperclassmen to keep his desk.

The Los Angeles City Council, Class of 1993, got down to a first full day of business Friday that had all the makings of a back-to-school session.

“The level of anxiety I’m feeling seems familiar,” said Chick, the new councilwoman from the west San Fernando Valley. “I feel like I’m 16 and I’m going in for my driver’s license.”

For the biggest crop of newcomers at 200 N. Spring St. in recent memory, the mundane preceded the momentous. Simply finding a phone that worked and learning to punch a button to vote electronically were the first orders of the day.

But the four new council members and their 11 colleagues had time to get down to business, too--reelecting Councilman John Ferraro to his fourth consecutive term as council president, putting their ideological stamp on a few issues and pledging to work with new Mayor Richard Riordan.

The reelection of Ferraro was widely viewed as a victory for his ally Riordan, who will need all the help he can get to push his programs through the sometimes ornery city legislature.

“This city needs some tender loving care,” Ferraro said in thanking the council for its support. “It needs all of us working together with our new mayor.”

Riordan paid a short visit and, echoing Ferraro’s promise, said: “I’m not going to be a stranger to the council chambers.”

But after Riordan left the chambers, most of the attention turned back to the four new lawmakers who spent the day getting used to their surroundings.

Alarcon had gotten off to a hectic start when he had to run to catch his Metrolink train to Union Station, then hopped the wrong shuttle bus before walking several blocks to City Hall.

But at least the key to his new office fit. “It works!” said a smiling Alarcon, who previously was former Mayor Tom Bradley’s top aide in the Valley.

Svorinich turned his attention to the pale green walls of an office that once belonged to Councilman Nate Holden, who has taken over the office of ex-Councilman Michael Woo, the loser in last month’s mayor’s race. The new councilman may have left the Wilmington paint store that he owns, but he proved that it hadn’t entirely left him.

“These walls are gonna need some PVA sealer,” he said knowledgeably. “Polyvinyl acetate sealer. A primer to keep the old color from bleeding through.”

After further study, he finally settled on a color: cottage white.

Chick, who defeated her onetime boss Joy Picus, was introduced to one of the perks of office by colleague Mike Hernandez. He directed her to the secret stash of snack goodies in a room just off the council chamber.

And when she stepped into the City Hall garage awhile later, an ingratiating attendant leaped into her car and pulled it out of its parking space, ready for her to drive away.

“No, no,” yelled Chick, who only went to retrieve something from her car. “Boy, they are fast,” she said, marveling.

Goldberg just longed for a phone that would work. Most of her lines were dead for outgoing calls and most of the incoming calls seemed to be for Hernandez or Councilwoman Rita Walters. “You expect these glitches,” she said philosophically. “It’s no problem.”

When they arrived Thursday morning in the ornate, marbled council chamber, both new and old council members enjoyed a bit of back-of-the-class jocularity.

While most of the lawmakers went quietly to their new seat assignments, set alphabetically, veteran Richard Alatorre balked. Slumped into the high-backed leather chair he has occupied for nearly eight years, Alatorre wasn’t ready to budge for his alphabetical superior, Alarcon.

After all, his position as the end of the council horseshoe is closest to the door--abetting Alatorre’s efforts to feed his junk food habit and, some have suggested, to slip out before controversial votes.

A smiling Alatorre alternately slumped in his old chair or stood behind it, holding on possessively. Even Ferraro, a former All-American football player, failed in a light-hearted effort to lift Alatorre from the chair.

“I never expected Councilman Alatorre to get confused about his seat,” Alarcon said. “Once we clear up that minor dilemma, I’m sure everything else will be easy.”

After an hour, and a good deal of chiding, the veteran gave up his hazing and let the freshman have his position.

Another round of ribbing centered on Svorinich.

After Ferraro twice garbled the name (pronounced Sa-VOR-a-nich) the council’s youngest member drew loud laughter when he parried: “Thank you Mr. Fa-RARE-o.”

Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky then suggested Svorinich, 33, pronounce the name for everyone.

“It’s Sa-VOR-a-nich,” he said, then turned to the crowd. “All together now,” he demanded. “Sa-VOR-a-nich!” One hundred and fifty onlookers yelled back.

This show of camaraderie notwithstanding, the freshman class settled in for a few more serious actions.

Goldberg used a committee meeting at the start of the session to protest the lack of women and minorities among companies holding several contracts with the Community Redevelopment Agency. She succeeded in winning a two-month delay.

“We wanted them to come back with some numbers that are more reflective of the city that we live in,” Goldberg said.

And Svorinich joined a minority of his colleagues in dissenting on a vote to tax cellular phone users. “We need to make this a more business-friendly city and to do that, we can’t increase taxes,” said Svorinich, who has also pledged to give his staff’s complement of seven city cars to police stations in his district.

The three other new members voted for the tax after being told that its failure would leave a gap of several million dollars in the city budget.

The afterglow of their first day left newcomers hungry for more.

As Chick put it: “I’m frothing at the bit to get down to business.”