Roberti Takes Look at Supervisor’s Race

A finger in the wind: State Sen. David A. Roberti (D-Van Nuys) will conduct a poll in the next few days to test his prospects for winning the seat of retiring Los Angeles County Supervisor Ed Edelman.

One of the things he’s especially curious about is how he would stack up against Los Angeles City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, who formally entered the race Tuesday.

The Roberti camp also will be keen to learn how their standard-bearer’s anti-abortion position plays; what his strengths are among Jewish and Republican voters; whether his leadership of the State Senate during a time of legislative scandals is a handicap, and how voters see his support for gun control and the breakup of the Los Angeles school district.

Yaroslavsky partisans say their man, who headed a Soviet Jewry support group in the 1970s, can expect to draw strong support from the district’s influential bloc of 150,000 Jewish voters. But Roberti has also been popular among Jewish voters over the years and, as the senator notes, the district is ethnically diverse. “It’s got 70,000 Latino voters and 26,000 Asian voters,” Roberti said.

The 3rd Supervisorial District is mostly a Valley district, but it includes the northern portion of the Westside; its southern boundary roughly follows Olympic Boulevard from Santa Monica to Hollywood. The race will be nonpartisan, but is unlikely to attract many Republican candidates--voter registration in the district is 56% Democratic, 30% Republican.

Roberti says he hopes his opposition to abortion does not become an overwhelming campaign issue. “If that’s the only issue I’m going to be judged on, then I should retire from politics right now,” he said.

Know when to fold ‘em: If local politics were a TV show, it would have been canceled a long time ago, and no one knows that better than Yaroslavsky.

When the media-savvy lawmaker learned that his 10 a.m. I’m-running-for-supervisor news conference Tuesday would be competing with Damian Williams’ sentencing hearing, Yaroslavsky knew it was time to punt.

He quickly rescheduled his news conference for a later, and more propitious, hour.

Guns ‘n’ poses: West Hollywood may have seemed like a hotbed for gun control Monday, but there was a simple reason: politics.

First, City Councilman Paul Koretz staged a press conference next to a local gun shop, calling for a lobbying effort to ban handguns statewide and nationally. Across town, council colleague Abbe Land summoned the media to announce a campaign to allow cities to regulate firearms.

Why the gun-control stampede in West Hollywood?

Both Land and Koretz are in the running for the 42nd District Assembly seat held by Burt Margolin, a Democrat who plans to run for state Insurance Commissioner if John Garamendi decides to leave the post to run for governor. There’s sure to be elbowing to claim the gun-control issue.

Land and Koretz politely endorsed each other’s measures at a City Council meeting later that night. But the dueling press conferences were an early sign that things may get weird around City Hall, where the fax machine was tied up with Land’s proposal when an aide tried to send out Koretz’s.

Koretz, who tried in vain to launch a statewide gun-control initiative in 1979 and has promoted several anti-gun resolutions in West Hollywood, called Land a latecomer to the issue. “She’s never even sponsored an easy thing such as a resolution supporting a bill,” he said.

Land said she has long backed gun control measures and took the statewide lead on this one. “I would be doing this whether I was running for the Legislature or not,” she said.

No soliciting: A proposed Beverly Hills ordinance that would prohibit advertisers from distributing leaflets in residential neighborhoods was yanked by the city attorney last week almost before it had seen the light of day.

Attorney Greg Stepanicich said he wanted to retool the ordinance to make it clearer that the city was seeking to regulate door-to-door advertising, not ban it outright. Court rulings have established that such advertising is constitutionally protected, but can be regulated, he said.

If approved by the City Council, the measure would require distributors to hand materials directly to the resident, instead of leaving them on doorknobs or porches. It would also prohibit advertisers from placing advertisements on vehicles parked on public streets or public property. The measure does not apply to newspapers or materials from religious or nonprofit organizations.

Resident Betty Harris said in an interview before Tuesday’s council meeting that the ordinance is needed to protect residents from burglary. Flyers that quickly accumulate on doors are “a dead giveaway that nobody’s at home” and an “absolute invitation” to burglars, she said.

McControversy: Some time ago, it was agreed that the flags of Mexico, Armenia and other nations could stay on the roof of Bob Goldfarb’s McDonald’s franchise in Hollywood. And then Goldfarb agreed to the city’s demand that he remove an unauthorized 12-foot banner touting a new chicken sandwich.

After all, he chuckled, that promotion was over.

But it wasn’t until last Wednesday, with a city deadline approaching, that Goldfarb decided to remove another sign atop his McDonald’s--this one of a large green parrot in a sombrero heralding a new Mexican dinner platter.

“I am going to cooperate,” a suddenly agreeable Goldfarb explained.

Before his decision, Goldfarb had chastised the city’s Building and Safety Department after his business, at 1413 Vine St, was cited Nov. 2 for the banners and flags--all violations of city codes regulating displays.

At first, Goldfarb intended to contest the citation and sent a nasty letter to inspectors, with copies mailed to local lawmakers and the media.

“This McDonald’s restaurant, simply stated, is one of the cleanest, best maintained buildings in Hollywood,” Goldfarb wrote. “Selecting our property is like finding fault with a rose and ignoring the surrounding weeds.”

But after further talks with city officials, it became clear they were willing to forgive some, but not all, of Goldfarb’s code transgressions. So Goldfarb decided against a long fight with City Hall.

“I figure I would rather cooperate in the matter,” he said. “At the same time, I would expect them to cooperate and Building and Safety to do its job by spending time where it’s meaningful.”

Hmm, so much for no hard feelings.

Fame is fleeting: Santa Monica tavern owner Lou Moench just missed his 15 minutes of fame.

He had his suitcase packed and was ready to fly to New York to appear as a guest on “Donahue.” Then the phone rang.

“We’ll need you to be sending back your tickets,” said the Donahue staffer.

And so it was that Moench’s big chance to go on nationwide TV to discuss the issue of smoking with Phil went up in smoke.

Moench, formerly a heavy smoker, runs a successful bar on Montana Avenue at which smoking is verboten. He thinks others should follow his lead.

The Donahue folks found out about him by reading a Westside story about a debate at the Santa Monica City Council on how far to go in banning smoking in restaurants and bars.

Moench said he was interviewed by phone for about 30 minutes before being OKd as a guest for a show that was to air last Thursday. As he understood it, the idea for the show was to pit three smokers against three nonsmokers. Apparently a glitch in the guest list caused the last-minute cancellation.

What if Moench had gotten on that plane to the Big Apple? Would the show have apologetically put him up anyway at a Park Avenue hotel as a consolation prize?

Nope. Moench was told he would have been put on the next plane home.