Yaroslavsky Tunes Out Colleagues at City Hall

Comic relief: Most people who spend much time at City Hall would rate Zev Yaroslavsky as one of Los Angeles’ abler and better-informed council members.

But sometimes he can get a bit cocky.

Last week, for example, as his colleagues debated Councilman Hal Bernson’s plan to require the city to commit enough money over the next five years to increase the LAPD to 10,000 officers, Yaroslavsky ignored them.

Sitting at his council seat, he listened with earplugs to a vintage tape by Tom Lehrer, the piano-playing satirist of the ‘60s.

Then, having gotten his chuckles, Yaroslavsky doffed the earplugs and issued the most spirited attack of the day against the Bernson proposal, which was defeated.

The Lehrer tape, by the way, was Councilwoman Ruth Galanter’s.

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Scrambled signals: Cellular-phone companies have a static problem in West Hollywood they can’t get rid of.

Her name is Mary Worley.

Last week, for the second time in four months, Worley and a band of West End neighbors stunned a cellular phone company by shooting down a proposed new transmission post in town. Armed with a folder of scientific reports and arguing against a consultant with a Ph.D., Worley and her lay-person neighbors persuaded the City Council that radiation emissions might pose a health hazard.

Never mind that Worley, a retired medical aide, tripped up on what kHz means--it’s short for kilohertz, a frequency measurement--or that one supporter referred to the dangers of “radar” instead of radiation. The council bought their passion, if not all their footnotes.

A representative of L.A. Cellular said it was the first time the company had been rejected on health grounds. Pac Tel Cellular suffered a similar experience in June when Worley led a successful drive to keep the company from upgrading two sites.

Worley discovered the nearby cellular antennas early this year. Certain they had caused a cancer that killed one of her dogs and illnesses that have stricken three other pets, she went into high gear to fight the new transmission sites, tracking down research nationwide and deciphering complicated data on electronic emissions.

The phone companies insist their low-power operations are safe. They say the evidence Worley presented was slanted and doesn’t apply to them. Both companies could appeal the rejections to the state Public Utilities Commission.

Worley, who says she’s an “appliance junkie” but still doesn’t own a cellular phone, hopes to target existing transmission sites in the city once their permits come up for renewal.

“It isn’t that I’m trying to wipe out cellular phones,” Worley insists. “I want to put in mitigating measures that make them safe.”

If she can just get them off restaurant tables.

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It’s a jungle out there: J. R. Annecelli hasn’t moved back to North Carolina yet, but he’s thinking about it.

Two weeks ago, we reported that his car had been

stolen during a robbery at the pizza store where he worked, that he was out three days’ pay and $500 from savings to pay the insurance deductible, and that he was dismayed at how no one even thanked him for giving up the keys to his car to get the robber out of the store.

A few days later, a burglar cleaned out his apartment.

But things are finally looking up a bit. Annecelli has reached a settlement of just over $2,000 with L.A. Pizza, the Domino’s franchisee for which he worked. A sympathetic soul sent in a $20 check when she read of his troubles.

But he still hasn’t gone back to work. Just driving by the place makes him nervous, he said. His monthlong car rental provide by his insurance company is about to expire, meanwhile, and he needs to work out an insurance settlement and buy another vehicle if he is ever to deliver another slice of pizza.

“I’ve learned a lot,” said the University of North Carolina graduate. “I speak two other languages, I’m not a dodo by any means, but I’m having a tough time getting through this. . . . When I can focus on the priorities I had before I was robbed, that’s when it’ll be over for me.”

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Rumor patrol: If he announces as a candidate for state insurance commissioner next year, Assemblyman Burt M. Margolin (D-Los Angeles) is expected to set off a scramble for his current job.

Los Angeles school board member Mark Slavkin and West Hollywood Councilwoman Abbe Land already have said that they will seek Margolin’s 42nd Assembly District seat if the veteran Westside lawmaker makes a move.

Several others are rumored to be considering it.

One who is not interested, despite rumors to the contrary, is Beverly Hills Councilman Robert K. Tanenbaum, who says he will seek reelection next April.

“The possibility (of running for the Legislature) never passed through my lips nor did any image of doing so ever penetrate my gray matter,” he said.

Any questions?

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Lunch is served: To dramatize her outrage over the amount of money Department of Water and Power managers spent during the recent employee strike--including nearly $800,000 on food delivered to them as they kept the place running--San Fernando Valley Councilwoman Laura Chick last week distributed to her colleagues muffins and pie that she purchased at a bulk warehouse. She noted that she bought the baked goods for less than $10--a fraction of what the DWP brass paid.

Her point may have been well taken, but her offerings met with a mixed reception. Among Westside council members present, Ruth Galanter, Mark Ridley-Thomas and Zev Yaroslavsky passed on the pastries, while Councilman Nate Holden ate a muffin.

Chick presented the pie to Council President John Ferraro, who did not eat any but upon request gave a piece to Mayor Richard Riordan. Riordan finished his slice as the council gave unanimous approval to his plan for $50 million in spending cuts to balance the budget.

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Contributing to this report were staff writers John Schwada, Ron Russell, Ken Ellingwood, Mathis Chazanov and Lee Harris.