Berman Parts Company With Local Democrats on Space Station

A GALAXY OF VIEWPOINTS: With the Rocketdyne division of Rockwell International in Canoga Park holding contracts worth $2.4 billion, the recent votes over the fate of the costly and controversial Space Station Freedom were particularly tough for Valley-area Democrats.

Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Panorama City) voted last month to support building a scaled-back, $25.5-billion orbiting space laboratory. Reps. Anthony C. Beilenson (D-Woodland Hills) and Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles), meanwhile, voted against President Bill Clinton’s proposed space outpost. The program was kept alive by a 216-115 tally.

“The manned space program is a fundamental part of America’s mission and the space station is an intricate element of a manned space program,” Berman said. He added that he supports the joint ventures to keep Russian rocket and space scientists employed on the project.

“Third, this was a job that involved skilled scientists and engineers in the Los Angeles area and manufacturing.” So, given the impact of defense cuts he has supported “and how we had already invested in the space station, I thought it made sense to see it through.”

Beilenson called it a very tough vote. But he said he couldn’t justify the tens of billions of dollars in the face of the budget deficit and with so many other needs unmet.

“It was supposed to cost $8 billion. It has already cost us $10 billion, and we have nothing for that money,” Beilenson said. “It originally was going to perform a large array of functions” and now will only be a research laboratory for life science and micro-gravity.

Beilenson added: “There are a little more than 1,000 people in our district whose jobs depend on funding for the space station. I do care deeply about them and about the possibility of those jobs being lost. But I also have a responsibility to the 600,000 other constituents I represent.”

Republicans Rep. Carlos J. Moorhead (R-Glendale) and Howard P. (Buck) McKeon (R-Santa Clarita) both support the project. Moorhead voted for it on June 24 but McKeon, whose 25th District includes the Rocketdyne plant, was absent because he had flown home to attend his daughter’s high school graduation. The following week McKeon voted against an amendment to gut the project.

McKeon subsequently made sure there is no question about his support for the station. On July 6, he took a well-publicized tour of the sprawling Rocketdyne facility, where the project’s electrical power system is being built. The company employs 1,300 people on the station.

BACK TO THE FUTURE: So whatever happened to the idea of an all-San Fernando Valley school district?

With attention focused on state Sen. David A. Roberti’s plan to divide the Los Angeles school district into at least seven smaller units, the original goal of the breakup movement has been somewhat eclipsed.

The drive had its roots in Valley residents’ discontent after the Los Angeles City Council reapportioned school board boundaries last summer and eliminated one of two seats located entirely in the Valley. Proponents of a Valley withdrawal from the school system enlisted Roberti (D-Van Nuys) to the cause but were dismayed when he introduced a plan that would have carved the Valley into at least two districts.

Nonetheless, Valley activists backed the bill, acknowledging that politically it was the only hope for downsizing the enormous Los Angeles Unified School District, even though the idea of an all-Valley system was sacrificed in the process.

“We would like a Valley district,” said Robert L. Scott, a West Hills attorney and a leader of the breakup movement. But, he said, “this is a fluid situation, and the goal has to be the best education for all the kids. So to try to accomplish that, we have to look at every proposal.”

But in a blow to the breakup drive, Roberti’s bill was defeated in an Assembly committee Wednesday. Advocates now speak of an initiative campaign to divide L. A. Unified, possibly to include a provision for an all-Valley district, which would bring the movement full circle.

“I had a problem with the San Fernando Valley being broken up into separate school districts,” said school board member Julie Korenstein. “A lot of people still would like to see a San Fernando Valley Unified School District. People will regroup and try to figure out the next step. . . . The goal is too great in too many people’s minds.”

A FAIR SHARE: Sounding a popular Valley refrain, Los Angeles City Councilwoman Laura Chick last week claimed the Valley is not getting its fair share. This time, Chick said, the Valley deserves a bigger slice of the city’s emergency housing services for battered women.

But the facts present a mixed picture.

The issue arose as the City Council reviewed a plan to streamline the way city agencies deal with domestic violence.

In her remarks, Chick asked city officials to examine the geographic allocation of services for battered women. “Do we have good coverage in all 15 council districts? I know that we don’t.”

The freshman lawmaker later elaborated, saying she was “painfully aware” that the Haven Hills Family Violence Center in Canoga Park is the only shelter for battered women in the entire Valley. True enough. There are five other shelters scattered throughout the rest of the city.

But Haven Hills has done a bang-up job of getting city funding, according to city records.

This year, for example, Haven Hills received $236,000. Meanwhile, three other shelters--one on the East Side, one in San Pedro and a third in the inner city--got a total of $451,000.

Put another way, Haven Hills scored 35% of the city money spent on the shelters, an amount very close to the Valley’s share of city residents. And that’s not so bad.

SUMMER RECESS: Without a protracted state budget crisis like last year, state lawmakers starting today will have a month recess from their legislative duties in the Capitol and escape Sacramento’s 100-degree heat.

State Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica) turned down an invitation to attend the National Conference of State Legislatures in San Diego and cruise around San Diego Harbor at the request of utility companies. Instead, Hayden, whose district includes parts of the San Fernando Valley, said he plans to meet with constituents back home but cracked that he also “may be heading for a rain forest. Stay tuned.”

Other San Fernando Valley lawmakers say their plans for the monthlong legislative break are not so exotic. Sen. Herschel Rosenthal (D-Los Angeles) said he expects to head for San Diego because he chairs the energy committee of the National Conference of State Legislatures.

A sampling of other Valley-area lawmakers:

* Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar) plans to spend a few days in New Mexico but most of his time will be in the district.

* Assemblywoman Paula Boland (R-Granada Hills) said her staff has her booked in the district, but she promised her husband to spend three days with him around the house.

* Assemblyman Terry B. Friedman (D-Brentwood) anticipates showing off his newborn daughter to relatives on the East Coast.