West Hollywood Council Race Offers Few Fireworks : Elections: The usual hubbub is absent from this year’s contest as 11 candidates vie for three seats. Most of the hopefuls target crime.

Take a wide-open race for the West Hollywood City Council. Toss in enough candidates to field a football team. Aim the spotlight on crime issues and what do you get?

A campaign so stunningly drab, it’s hard to tell everyone apart.

With three of the council’s five seats up for grabs, most people expected a bruising, high-stakes affair. All of the candidates are men. And all but one of the 11 hopefuls is gay, providing the chance for the council’s first gay majority since 1986.

Already, however, the race is remarkable for another reason.

“It’s probably the dullest City Council race we’ll ever have, unless something happens (by Election Day),” said Councilman Paul Koretz, who is not up for reelection this year but is seeking a state Assembly seat.

The unexpected calm probably will help the two incumbents, John Heilman and Sal Guarriello, since voters may already know their names before the April 12 vote. Councilwoman Babette Lang decided not to seek another four-year term, ensuring the council will gain at least one new member.

Candidates say a shortage of cash to pay for mailers has dampened the race in a town where elections often get down and dirty. Causes dear to many voters--such as rent control and gay rights--face no local challenge; battles over those issues are being waged at the state and federal levels. Recession has smothered debate about development, and the controversial idea of forming a city police department is expected to go directly to voters this fall.

The vacuum has been filled somewhat by an urgent focus on crime, a first for the 10-year-old city. Though figures show no marked increase in crime in West Hollywood, most of the candidates have jumped on the anti-crime bandwagon, calling for more policing while offering few details on how to pay for it.

The crime issue is a kind of Rorschach test in West Hollywood, with vastly different audiences at work. Crime means street hustlers and drug-dealing to residents of the depressed East End, burglaries and car thefts to homeowners across town and bigoted attacks on gays and lesbians all over.

Challenger Timothy P. Olson, a leader of an unsuccessful 1992 ballot initiative to create a city police force, has hammered the crime theme hardest. Citing FBI figures, he asserts that on a per capita basis, West Hollywood is one of the five most dangerous cities in California. Per capita crime statistics, however, are criticized as misleading in small tourist meccas such as West Hollywood because they do not account for the large number of visitors.

In one of the campaign’s first direct attacks, a group supporting Olson mailed a campaign flyer last week charging that the Heilman-led council majority had made big cuts in the portion of the city’s budget slated for public safety. City officials dispute that, saying the dip is far less than Olson claims and resulted from the city’s decision two years ago to reassign parking enforcement to a private company.

Steve Martin, a gay-rights activist who sits on the city’s rent board, has proposed spending up to $1 million more to boost patrols by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, which now provides law enforcement to the city under an $8.5 million-a-year contract.

Campaign forums have produced a chorus of similar-sounding calls for more foot and bicycle patrols and for a new substation on the East End. The field is about evenly split on whether to create an independent police force.

Despite the rhetoric, FBI statistics for West Hollywood indicate a 6% drop in serious crime--from 4,532 cases to 4,254--since 1986, the first year for which city figures are available. Totals for the most violent crimes fluctuated the past three years: 4,083 in 1990; 4,712 in 1991; and 4,264 in 1992. Six people were murdered in 1992, the last year homicide statistics were available.

West Hollywood mirrors an ironic national trend--sinking crime figures accompanied by growing panic that streets are unsafe. That perception may be made worse in West Hollywood by street prostitution that occurs nightly in public view.

“People really are more afraid,” said City Manager Paul Brotzman. “Is it reflective of the circumstances on the street? No. But people really feel it.”

Crime may resonate, but it hasn’t sparked a debate that would help overwhelmed West Hollywood voters weed through all the candidates.

“If I were a voter, I’d be confused,” said Koretz, who is undecided. “In fact, I am a voter and I am confused.”

Heilman--the council’s only gay member and its only member to have served since cityhood--has emphasized the city’s trailblazing record in social services. His campaign is closest to a referendum on City Hall itself. A law professor, Heilman is also a walking directory of city programs and policies, ticking them off at debates (he was the only candidate who knew the city has a law against car alarms that disturb residents). Though targeted by a failed recall attempt in 1991, few hard shots have come Heilman’s way this campaign.

As in the past, Heilman is endorsed by the Coalition for Economic Survival, a renter’s rights group whose support has been tantamount to winning office in West Hollywood.

Guarriello, the campaign’s only heterosexual, is trying to capitalize on being the only senior in the field--he’s 74--and on his maverick role on the council. His gruff outsider’s approach to city government often leaves him at odds with the Heilman-led council majority, though Guarriello managed to crack it last year in blocking a utility tax and special business levy.

Four challengers are trying to reap votes from their past involvement in local politics--from inside and outside City Hall.

Attorney Jeff Richmond, who heads the city’s planning commission, is Heilman’s running mate and the only challenger to get the Coalition for Economic Survival endorsement. He has run almost as an incumbent, endorsing and defending the city’s liberal programs, and is the only candidate from the East End, where many residents have felt ignored by the city.

Martin represented the city’s political Establishment as a leading opponent of police initiative, but he has clashed with the council majority in the past by opposing a business tax and the proposed construction of a civic center in West Hollywood Park.

Martin, Olson and activist Michael W. Radcliffe sound parallel themes--crime, City Hall spending and the need for a friendlier business climate.

Olson, a fund-raiser for Aid for AIDS, a local AIDS assistance group, got his start in city politics pushing the police department measure, though he has played down the idea during debates and instead emphasized the immediate need for more sheriff deputies. Still, he is banking on the votes of those who favored the police measure.

Radcliffe, the sole Republican in the race, is the candidate City Hall most hopes will lose. He has spent years criticizing and infuriating city administrators and council members on business issues as head of the West Hollywood Community Alliance, a rival to the city’s Chamber of Commerce.

Of four political newcomers, Christopher Patrouch, a shopkeeper and former city transportation planner, boasts the quirkiest platform: Get rid of cars. Patrouch, who rode a bicycle cross-country when he moved here from New York in 1990, has proposed taxing valet parking and suggested the city consider a rush-hour fee on lone drivers.

Burton Cutler, a transportation consultant, wants the city to take over the local library, a county facility open only three days a week because of funding shortages.

Daniel Kovatch, an insurance sales supervisor who said he wants a career in politics, has underlined the need for more business.

Christopher S. Dietrich, a writer and legal clerk, supports strong animal protections and proposes a city film festival.

Steven S. Chapman is on the ballot, but suspended his campaign.