Alarcon in Uphill Fight to Get Lopez Canyon Landfill Closed

TRASH TALKING: The politics of trash have never been neat or pretty. But freshman Councilman Richard Alarcon is, nonetheless, jumping into the thick of it with both feet by leading a campaign to have the Lopez Canyon Landfill closed when its operating permit expires in 1996.

The city-owned landfill sits on the northeast edge of his district and takes in 80% of the city’s refuse. It has been a longtime source of aggravation for his constituents, who complain about truck traffic, odors, noise and trash.

But the city’s Sanitation Department has recommended extending the life of the landfill until 2000, on the premise that the city will save on the cost of hauling the trash elsewhere.

Alarcon’s effort will probably be the toughest fight of his brief tenure, partly because he will have to convince council colleagues who don’t have landfills in their districts to sympathize with his plight.

“The uphill battle he is going to face is with certain districts in the Downtown areas that don’t know the problems we have with landfills,” said Greig Smith, chief of staff for Councilman Hal Bernson, who fought for years to close the Sunshine Canyon Landfill in his district.

When it comes time to decide whether to support Alarcon, many council members will probably ask why the city should put up the money and energy to establish a new waste disposal program when Lopez Canyon has the capacity to take trash for another four years.

Alarcon has already begun his sales pitch. Last month he took Councilwoman Laura Chick on a helicopter tour of the nine landfills in and around his district. Chick’s support is going to be crucial because she heads the council’s committee on environmental quality.

Although Chick says she understands Alarcon’s plight, she says she is going to have to be sold on a viable alternative before she supports the closure of Lopez Canyon in 1996. That means Alarcon is going to have to package his sales job with a quick and relatively inexpensive alternative--if such a thing exists.

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HOME SWEET HOME: With the recent purchase of a home in North Hollywood, U.S. Rep. Howard Berman has re-established himself as a bona fide resident of his own 26th District.

The Berman residency issue arose in 1992 after reapportionment shifted the 26th District eastward, leaving the congressman residing in a rental home in Sherman Oaks that was suddenly outside the district.

Berman denied the relocation was designed to forestall election season criticism that he has lived for nearly two years outside his East San Fernando Valley-based congressional district. “That’s not really it,” Berman said this week. In fact, it was not until recently--when the Sherman Oaks lease expired and the finances were available--that it was possible to make a move back into the district, Berman said. He noted as well that the law only requires congressmen to live in the state they represent, not the district.

As questions about Berman’s residency bobbed to the surface in what has otherwise been a virtually invisible election contest, Berman’s staff members noted that their boss invariably flies into Los Angeles from the nation’s capital to spend his weekends meeting with constituents and seeing his wife, Janice, and their daughter.

Despite such claims, GOP challenger Gary Forsch, who will face Berman in the November election, remained a disbeliever.

Forsch, who works in his family owned hardware store, said it was evident to him that Berman moved to North Hollywood to nip any criticism in the bud. “I made an issue of it in 1992 and I was fixing to do it again,” said Forsch, who unsuccessfully ran against Berman two years ago.

“I hope Berman can deal with issues in Washington faster than it’s taken him to move back into his district,” Forsch quipped.

Finally, there has been another change in Berman’s living arrangements. Recently the congressman began sharing an apartment in Washington with U.S. Rep. Alan Wheat (D-Missouri). Previously, Berman had spent his weekdays in Washington living out of hotel rooms. “It beats having to schlep your stuff around every weekend,” said Berman aide Gene Smith of the new arrangement. “Now he can at least keep a suit here.”

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WHAT UNITY?: Post-primary Republican Party unity is still proving elusive in the 24th Congressional District.

It will be recalled that attorney Richard Sybert, a recent arrival to the San Fernando Valley, got 47% of the vote in June to win the nod from the GOP to run against U.S. Rep. Anthony Beilenson (D-Woodland Hills).

Although more than a month has elapsed since the primary, several of Sybert’s GOP peers have still not agreed to support their party’s standard-bearer as he prepares to go head-to-head against Beilenson. So much for that hackneyed photo op of former political foes clasping hands to win one for the Gipper.

Banking consultant Bob Hammer reaffirmed this week that he will not back Sybert, and realtor Emery Shane seconded that emotion.

“Let’s just say there is a certain je ne sais quoi about Sybert and the vindictiveness with which he ran his campaign that makes it virtually impossible (to support him now),” Shane said.

“Don’t get me wrong--I’m not supporting Beilenson either,” Shane said. “The big dilemma for me is this: I feel Beilenson is honestly wrong in his politics but Sybert is a guy I can’t trust even though I agree with him on a number of issues.”

Shane received 8% of the vote.

Hammer, who came in second with 17% of the vote, agreed that it was unlikely that he would back Sybert. “I acknowledge that they ran a clever campaign, but it was not one designed to unite the party afterward,” Hammer said.

Taking a contrary stance was public relations man Mark Boos Benhard, an aide to former Rep. William Dannemeyer, who scored 12% of the vote in the June 7 primary. Benhard, who allied himself with right-wing Republicans during the race, said he would encourage all Republicans to back the party’s nominees in November. “And that includes Sybert,” Benhard said this week. On the other hand, Benhard acknowledged, no one from Sybert’s camp has approached him to help out.

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NAME GAMES: When you are a council member in the second largest city in America, it can be difficult to keep straight the names of all those bureaucrats, constituents and community leaders that you deal with on a daily basis.

But Los Angeles Councilman Marvin Braude learned that a mix-up can be embarrassing. That lesson came at a recent council meeting when the discussion was on a plan by a coalition of churches and synagogues to use city funding for an anti-gang program.

The head of the organization, known as Hope in Youth, was at the podium answering questions about the program when Braude arose to make his own queries.

“Mr. McAllister,” he said, trying to get the man’s attention. “Mr. McAllister,” Braude said louder, still unable to get the man’s attention. “Mr. McAllister, would you please look at me when I’m speaking to you,” he said, almost shouting.

“My name is Mr. Fitzgerald,” answered Greg Fitzgerald, the director of Hope in Youth, as some observers in the council chamber bit their tongues to keep from laughing.