Riordan Looks to the Valley to Fill Lofty Commission Jobs

A VALLEY EXPORT: Mayor Richard Riordan has signaled the end of the San Fernando Valley’s long political exile from City Hall, and he has chosen mostly Republican loyalists to accomplish that goal.

In one of the clearest signs yet of his plan to reshape City Hall, Riordan in the past two weeks has named 10 Valley residents to commission seats that had been previously held by only three Valley representatives. And more are expected when Riordan unveils his next batch of commission appointees.

Of the 10 Valley residents already named, six are Republicans.

Nor are they just pro forma Republicans; many are party activists.

In a telling commentary on the sea of change Riordan has already wrought in the personalities and political persuasions of the city’s governing elite, Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, an 18-year veteran of City Hall and Westside Democratic Party circles, said simply of the new Riordan commissioners: “I don’t know many of them.”

The Valley Republicans headed for City Hall:

Former Northridge congresswoman and antibusing organizer Bobbi Fiedler, who has always prided herself on fighting what she considers to be costly government social engineering programs. Long known as a “Valley first” champion, Fiedler was picked for the board of the Community Redevelopment Agency, an organization designed to revitalize downtown and uplift the city’s poor.

And then there’s auto mogul Herbert Boeckmann, a longtime Republican financial angel, who was named to the Police Commission. Since 1984, Boeckmann, his company, Galpin Motors Inc., and members of his immediate family have given $65,000 to City Hall politicians. Aside from sizable contributions to former Mayor Tom Bradley, much of the Boeckmann largess went to conservatives.

Amid grousing that new water rates will hit the Valley hardest, Judy Miller, executive vice president of the Century Council, a nonprofit group organized in 1991 to fight alcohol abuse, was nominated by Riordan for the Water and Power Commission. The Van Nuys resident was a participant at the 1984 and 1988 Republican conventions.

West Hills attorney Robert Scott, twice a GOP candidate for state office, was appointed to the Planning Commission. Scott is a tough-talking foe of government land-use regulations and had earlier been named to sit on a panel to weed out costly roadblocks to development in the city’s planning code.

Joining Scott on the Planning Commission will be another Valley Republican, Shelly Suzuki, who is an executive with her family’s export-import business.

The other Valley Republican who made the Riordan team is attorney David W. Fleming, a Studio City resident, who is with the firm of Latham & Watkins. Fleming was named to the Fire Commission.

SECOND WAVE: Among other Valley folks believed to have an inside track on commission jobs in the Riordan Administration: LeRoy Chase, executive director of the Pacoima-based Boys & Girls Club of San Fernando; Roberta Weintraub, former Los Angeles school board member, and attorney Roger L. Stanard, an activist in the Woodland Hills business community. Councilwoman Laura Chick also is personally pushing for a commission post for Tomas Martinez, head of El Centro d’Armistad in Canoga Park.

In the waning days of the Bradley Administration, 19.6% of the city’s commissioners hailed from the Valley, although 36.2% of the city’s residents live there. Riordan Administration insiders predict that 30% to 35% of their commissioners will be Valley-ites.

A SHARPER IMAGE: Councilwoman Chick, who represents the southwest Valley, plans to introduce a resolution next week urging official city support for a major public-relations campaign to spread the good news about Los Angeles.

Chick joins Riordan in seeking a PR counteroffensive to deal with the recent spate of negative publicity about the city. Next Wednesday, CBS News’ “48 Hours” is scheduled to join the naysayers with an hourlong segment about the City of Angels. CBS spokeswoman Diane Dees said this week the “48 Hours” program is “not totally negative.”

“We need to do what they did with the ‘Big Apple’ campaign,” Chick said Thursday, recalling the vigorous campaign to turn around New York City’s abominable image. “We need to solve the problems we have too, but we also need to take the media to task for all this bashing and to focus attention on the area’s tremendous resources.”

LESE-MAJESTE: New Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alarcon said this week that he does intend to change his predecessor Ernani Bernardi’s $1-million scholarship fund for students at Mission College.

Alarcon said he has decided to reduce the amount of city money dedicated to the fund and redirect how the remaining scholarship money is spent. He declined to elaborate.

Three weeks ago, Alarcon managed to postpone final council action on the Bernardi plan while expressing qualms about it. The fund was to be financed from the Lopez Canyon Community Amenities Trust Fund, an account set up to provide new services for residents living within the noisy, smelly ambit of the city-owned Lopez Canyon trash dump. Alarcon’s final revised plan, however, is several weeks from completion.

CITY IN THE COUNTRY: For the past decade, the William O. Douglas Outdoor Recreation Center has provided low-income, inner-city children a chance to experience and learn about nature at Franklin Canyon in the Santa Monica Mountains.

This year alone, the outdoor classroom expects 125,000 visitors to use its 250-seat amphitheater, hike its trails and view its exhibits. The U.S. House of Representatives has included $250,000 in its Interior Department appropriations bill for the next fiscal year to pay for the educational program between the San Fernando Valley and Beverly Hills.

Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Panorama City) is also sponsoring legislation that would enable WODOC and the National Park Service to enter into an agreement that would, after a decade of federal funding for the $2.5-million facility, turn over WODOC to the Park Service. The facility is located within the Santa Monica Mountains Natural Recreation Area.

“The desperate need for this program is underscored by the civil unrest that has recently plagued Los Angeles,” Berman said in a statement supporting his measure. “Located in a mountain range in the middle of an urban metropolis, WODOC is truly unique.”