Public Safety Dominates Council Race : Politics: Renters rights and dealing with the homeless are also key issues among 11 candidates competing for three seats.

Fear is likely to dominate this fall’s campaign for three Santa Monica City Council seats--residents’ fear of crime, renters’ fear of losing their affordable seaside apartments . . . and incumbents’ fear of losing their seats.

Three candidates supported by Santa Monicans for Renters Rights, which has dominated local politics for the last 15 years, are facing a challenge from three candidates backed by longtime opponents who have formed a group called Coalition for a Safe Santa Monica.

Five other candidates, from a computer activist to an outspoken advocate for the homeless, are running independently in the race for the three seats on the seven-member council that are being decided Nov. 8.

The renters rights group started the campaign in August with a contentious convention, dropping incumbent Councilman Kelly Olsen from its ticket. Olsen had been an outspoken public safety advocate, but he antagonized some members of the group. He decided not to run an independent campaign.

Leading the renters rights ticket is Councilman Tony Vazquez, 38, who was elected four years ago as the council’s first Latino. Like nearly every candidate in the race, Vazquez said public safety is the primary issue. But he said public safety should include not only protection from criminals but also earthquake retrofitting and protection from other hazards.

“I think we’ve done a bang-up job” keeping a lid on crime, he said. “Obviously there’s room for improvement.”

Vazquez promises to continue lobbying the state to protect rent control, which has allowed thousands of residents to live in low-cost seaside apartments. The City Council doesn’t have the authority to change the city’s tough rent control law, but renters rights strategists argue that it’s important to elect council members who are willing to go to Sacramento to fight for it.

Also running with the group’s endorsement are Bruria Finkel, 62, a member of the Arts Commission and longtime political activist, and Pam O’Connor, 42, a historic preservation consultant and member of the Planning Commission.

Finkel said the city needs solutions to homelessness, not measures that sweep the problem under the rug. One example, she said, is the Shwashlock program she proposed, and which is now in place, to provide showers and lockers to homeless people who are trying to find a job.

“We must do it as a community,” she said. “We can’t leave it up to the police.”

O’Connor, the daughter of a Chicago police officer, said that although people are increasingly concerned about public safety, crime is dropping in Santa Monica. The City Council shouldn’t forget about helping businesses and residents recover from the Northridge earthquake, she said.

“We’ve lost something from the earthquake,” she said. “We have to continue to rebuild.”

Councilman Bob Holbrook is leading the opposition ticket. Holbrook, 52, was elected after a law-and-order campaign four years ago, and since then he has repeatedly called for tougher homeless policies.

Panhandling, theft and other crime in the city are the result of City Council policies that lure homeless people to Santa Monica, he said.

“It’s all related to the number of transients wandering around the city,” he said.

Holbrook and his two running mates, Los Angeles city prosecutor Ruth Ebner and labor lawyer Matthew Kanny, are supporting a petition calling for the city to close the parks at night, restrict panhandling and keep a closer watch on spending for homeless programs.

The City Council has already adopted many of the measures in the petition, but Ebner, 47, said a public vote on the petition would make the get-tough laws stick.

“Give the police the power to enforce the laws on the books,” she said.

Kanny, 29, has the kind of credentials more familiar to his opponents in Santa Monicans for Renters Rights. He’s a renter and a self-proclaimed liberal Democrat who once worked for the United Farm Workers. But during the last three years in Santa Monica, his wife was robbed, his car was stolen and his neighbor was nearly raped.

He joined the race to do something about the homeless problem and the measures in the petition would help, he said.

The other five candidates are also emphasizing public safety and homelessness, but one has firsthand experience with it. Ron Taylor started addressing the City Council during public hearings while he was living on the City Hall lawn. He has since found a place to stay with the help of friends.

“We must work to make homelessness a national priority,” he said during his unsuccessful bid to win a renters rights group endorsement.

Bob Kronovet, 37, a film distributor, said he would go to Washington to lobby for federal funds for homeless programs. He would also bring in money for the Police Department by guaranteeing film permits to companies that want to shoot in Santa Monica, he said.

Another businessman, Wallace Peoples, 34, said he would like to end gridlock between political factions in Santa Monica. Peoples, a pharmacist, said the city needs more services for youths and incentives for landlords to rent to young families.

“We need to draw new families to Santa Monica,” he said.

Two candidates ran unsuccessful campaigns for the council in 1992. Joe Sole, 36, a guidebook publisher, has not fared well in local elections. He finished the last among 18 candidates on the ballot in 1992, and last among 21 candidates for the Malibu City Council when he lived there two years earlier.

Sole, a champion of alternative energy, said the city needs better coordination of redevelopment, energy and transportation policies to make neighborhoods safer and more prosperous.

Jon Stevens, a substitute teacher, ran a write-in campaign in 1992 after he failed to qualify for the ballot. But Stevens was second to none in enthusiasm for the Public Electronic Network, the city’s computer bulletin board. He has pledged to make city officials more responsive to residents through the network.