Local Elections : Yaroslavsky Has Aggressive Plans : Government: New county supervisor is likely to be a driving force, observers say. But it will take time, some caution.

Los Angeles City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, newly elected to the county Board of Supervisors, brings an aggressive agenda for change to the Hall of Administration, and many local officials said Wednesday that he may possess the political savvy, budgeting skills and populist ideology to accomplish much of it.

After Yaroslavsky passed twice on races for mayor of Los Angeles, many political analysts thought his political career had reached a dead end. But now fellow elected officials say he has a chance to play a key role in reshaping one of the most powerful legislative bodies in Southern California.

“He’ll be the motivating force on the board,” said City Councilman Hal Bernson, who has worked side by side with Yaroslavsky for 15 years. “He’ll quickly take charge.”

Yaroslavsky is proposing an overhaul of the county’s notoriously complex and secretive budgeting process. He wants to make peace with the county’s unions while holding the line on raises. He is questioning the fundamental approach to health care by asking whether the county should even own hospitals and says he’ll quickly propose campaign finance reform.

And as the supervisor for the 3rd District, which includes much of the Westside and San Fernando Valley, he will work to protect open space in the Santa Monica Mountains.

“It won’t be boring,” City Councilman Richard Alatorre said. “He’s not an ideologue. He’s a doer, he’s a reformer.”

Yaroslavsky, who will replace the retiring Ed Edelman in December, will be the third new supervisor to join the board in as many years, following the elections of follow Democrats Gloria Molina and Yvonne Brathwaite Burke. His arrival is seen by many as the element necessary to reach a critical mass for reform.

Burke said Yaroslavsky will provide the third vote necessary to “solidify the reform bloc” on the board. Burke said she and Molina want to introduce ways to handle the massive county budget, such as the line-item budgeting, and pare back long-established perks for officials.

Molina agreed. She said he’ll help form “a solid bloc for fiscal responsibility.”

“He’ll be a positive change,” said Molina, who served with Yaroslavsky on the City Council for four years. “Zev is like me, he likes to scrutinize a lot of things. Now I won’t be the only one asking the hard questions.”

At the same time, Supervisor Mike Antonovich, who anchors the conservative wing of the board, said he is looking forward to having Yaroslavsky as an ally for beefing up the budgets of sheriff, district attorney and other public safety departments.

At the City Council, where he arrived in 1976 as a 26-year old, longhaired activist, Yaroslavsky quickly developed an expertise in budget matters. As chair of the Budget and Finance Committee for the last decade, he played a lead role in drafting many city spending plans.

He is difficult to label either as a liberal or conservative.

Although he championed social programs, as head of the Budget Committee he often was compelled to pare them back to balance the budget.

He has remained close to the unions, although he successfully advocated no-raise contracts for most employees. And although he fought for more money for the Los Angeles Police Department, he also advocated sweeping reforms and the removal of former Police Chief Daryl F. Gates.

When he was unable to achieve his agenda through the council, Yaroslavsky has tried some less traditional approaches. He sponsored the successful ballot measures to regulate growth and halt oil drilling in the Palisades.

In an interview Wednesday, Yaroslavsky said he would consider going to the ballot again to achieve some goals at the county as well. If the state Legislature does not allow the county to tap new revenue sources, he said, he would consider a ballot measure to give local jurisdictions more power to levy “sin” taxes on alcohol, tobacco and firearms.

Still, some officials who are familiar with the tradition-bound ways of the county say Yaroslavsky may have to crawl before he can walk.

“There’s no training ground for this,” Supervisor Deane Dana said. “The county is a big, complex place. Until you’ve been here, you can’t imagine what it is like. It will take him some time to gain the experience.”

City Councilman Nate Holden, who served as a supervisorial aide to Kenneth Hahn for 13 years, agreed, saying the differences between the city and county are enormous.

“People there are very strong-willed, every one of them,” Holden said. “You can be part of the routine, or you can upset the apple cart and not get a second” on your motion. Holden said that in time Yaroslavsky will learn the rules. “He’s smart enough to know that if you can’t break ‘em, bend ‘em a little.”

Ed Edelman echoed the sentiments of Dana and Holden.

“It’s not like the City Council, where you make speeches,” he said. “This is a governing body. You need to line up your votes.”

Some elected officials said that style, rather than philosophy, may well be the biggest change between Yaroslavsky and Edelman.

John Ferraro, who worked along side Edelman at the City Council in the 1970s, joked that they once missed a quorum because the cautious Edelman “was downstairs and couldn’t decide to take the stairs or the elevator. Now Zev, on the other hand, he takes off a little too quickly.”

Yaroslavsky acknowledges the difference.

“Ed is the one you want when you need to bring warring parties together,” he said. “Me?, I’m a warring party. . . . I’m provocative. I take risks, I’m an activist.”

Despite the pugilistic imagery, Yaroslavsky is actually hoping to be a peacemaker.

Economic development efforts, he said, are hampered by the deep-seated enmity between the city and county governments.

The two governments have been at odds for years on a host of issues, including development plans and homeless programs and are currently suing each other over the collection of parking taxes.

“I’m hoping that the city and county can work together on economic development,” said Yaroslavsky, emphasizing his close relationship with Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan.

Yaroslavsky and his new colleagues will have a honeymoon of sorts. He won’t take office until Dec. 5., allowing for a six-month transition effort.

But Molina, who made the same move from City Hall to the Hall of Administration, said her advice is simple: “Bust right through the door and roll up your sleeves.”