That’s Why Garage Sales Were Invented

Junk man: Activist Jerry Rubin can’t move without causing some kind of a stir.

Rubin--well-known peacenik, hunger-striker and publicity hound--got some unwanted attention over the way he and his wife moved out of their beachside Venice apartment after getting an eviction notice from the landlord.

During a move to their new Santa Monica condo last weekend, the couple discarded piles of junk next to the street outside their Venice place--peace posters, old answering machines, a leather couch and other stuff Rubin said he thought homeless people might be able to use. Scavengers came, all right, scattering the trash all over and keeping chagrined neighbors awake at night until city work crews arrived Tuesday afternoon to clean up the mess.

Neighbor Preva Springer beat Rubin at his own game--she reported him to the press. “I felt a person who is so dedicated to liberal causes should be more aware of the environment,” Springer said after the publicized cleanup. “He set a poor example by doing what he did.”

Rubin said the eviction notice gave the couple only five days to leave after they withheld their July rent; no time to dispose of the junk any other way. Owner Gittel Gordon isn’t buying that excuse: She says the couple told her two months ago they were leaving for the newly purchased place in Santa Monica.

Rubin, whose latest crusade is Santa Monica’s homeless population, said the couple donated appliances to a homeless agency and added that the sidewalk junk must have come in handy to someone in need.

“I’m not sorry I put the stuff out there,” he said. “I’m sorry I didn’t do it neater.”

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Can we talk?: The American Civil Liberties Union continues to take a tough stance in its lawsuit over a Santa Monica park regulation that would effectively end food lines in the parks.

In addition to rejecting the city’s latest settlement offer, ACLU attorney Carol Sobel said, “No thanks” to a request that she and other ACLU officials get together and chat with a few City Council members and their attorneys.

Sobel said such a meeting would be unethical because non-lawyers who serve on the board of the organization aren’t legally allowed to direct litigation. Besides, Sobel said, the settlement offer is so far off the mark that a negotiating session would be a waste of time.

The ACLU is sitting in the catbird’s seat on this one.

A federal judge has already temporarily barred the city from using the new law, making it clear that she found it violated 1st Amendment free speech guarantees. A final ruling on the matter is expected by the end of September.

Christi Hogin, an attorney who was involved in drafting the law, said the city is eager to remedy the ACLU’s objections to the ordinance, but continues to get the cold shoulder.

“It’s really unfortunate,” Hogin said. “You have a city here really prepared to accommodate . . . and an unwillingness on the part of either the clients or the ACLU to participate in any sort of problem solving.”

Sobel, however, insists the city knows exactly what she wants to settle the case and she is not about to settle for half a loaf. “I have the law on my side,” she said.

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Ticket Trouble: When West Hollywood’s most ornery City Hall critics saw then-Mayor Babette Lang get ticketed for parking in a handicapped space in February, they tracked the case like bloodhounds.

They smelled a rat when the $330 fine was dismissed in April. At a City Council meeting last week, the activists publicly accused Lang of fixing the ticket and suggested the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, which is under contract to patrol the city, helped her.

Resident Stan Lothridge, a semi-retired real estate broker with a penchant for diatribes against the council, called for a formal investigation.

Lang and Sheriff’s Capt. Clarence Chapman scoff at the charges, saying the whole thing is an innocent mix-up.

Lang’s explanation: In a rush to start a City Council meeting in February, she parked in a handicapped space when she could find no others. She told a deputy on duty there about the problem and went ahead with the meeting after getting what she thought was his OK.

So when a ticket appeared on her windshield, Lang contested it. The Beverly Hills court commissioner checked out her story with the sheriff and tossed the ticket out on the grounds that Lang had permission to park illegally. Lang, who once had a handicapped placard after a hip replacement but gave it up last year, said she got no special treatment and is being picked on by mean-spirited foes.

Lothridge, who said he got hit with a handicapped-parking violation a year or so ago, is sure there’s a cover-up. He vows the matter won’t die. “When city officials take extra liberties, I want them brought to light,” Lothridge said. “If we have to pay fines, they have to pay fines.”

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Quid pro quo: You have to give him an “A” for effort. After all, turnabout is fair play.

Days before his client was to lose his celebrated bid to build a small castle in Beverly Hills, attorney Murray Fischer called to whisper that he had heard some dirt about one of his most vocal adversaries, actor Jack Lemmon.

You’ll remember that Lemmon and a group of Beverly Hills neighbors fought the construction of a 46,000-square-foot estate that Fischer’s client, London financier Robert Manoukian, wanted to build on nearly four acres near their hillside homes.

Fischer, playing the role of Deep Throat in this Lemmon drama, said some of Lemmon’s neighbors had called him to say that while the actor was making waves in Beverly Hills, he was asking for special development favors for his Malibu home.

We immediately got on the case.

As it turns out, Fischer was right. But the favor Lemmon was seeking was a variance--not to build a palace, but to keep a fence that violates ( gasp! ) Malibu’s six-foot height limit.

According to Bob Benard, Malibu’s director of planning, Lemmon has a wall topped by latticework that in some places is eight feet high.

Benard acknowledged that after neighbors complained about the fence, Lemmon applied for the variance. The City Council will consider his application during a public hearing on Sept. 13.

Come to think of it, maybe that “A” should be for absurd .

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Fashion police: Los Angeles City Councilman Nate Holden, whose district includes several Westside neighborhoods, wants to make sure that City Hall’s official greeters are as impeccably dressed as he always is.

The yellow uniforms worn by members of Las Angelenas, the volunteer group of men and women who have provided public tours through City Hall for more than 25 years, have become a bit worn.

“Some of the uniforms are faded. Some of them are not the same color. Some of (the members) were buying their own,” Holden said.

The group has been asking the city for help to purchase new uniforms, and Holden has come to their aid. He is proposing that $5,000 be spent to help buy the uniforms.

After the council’s Budget and Finance Committee reviews the request, it will go to the full council for a vote.

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Council meetings this week:

* Beverly Hills: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday. 450 N. Crescent Drive, Beverly Hills. (310) 285-2400.

* Culver City: 7 p.m. Monday. Interim City Hall, Trailer 1, 4095 Overland Ave., Culver City. (310) 202-5851.

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

* Malibu: 6:30 p.m. Monday. Hughes Laboratory, 3011 Malibu Canyon Road. (310) 456-2489.

* Santa Monica: no meeting. (310) 393-9975.

* West Hollywood: no meeting. (310) 854-7460.