ELECTIONS CITY COUNCIL : Ridley-Thomas Is Confident Voters Will Stand by Him : 8th District: The councilman says his first term has been highly productive in helping to revitalize south Los Angeles. His opponents counter that he has become ‘arrogant.’

To his supporters, City Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas’ strong will is vital to improving lives in depressed south Los Angeles.

To his critics, Ridley-Thomas is stubborn, almost dictatorial, and is failing to address the needs of many residents in District 8, a 17-square-mile area that includes Baldwin Hills, Leimert Park, University Park, Vermont Knolls and South-Central Los Angeles.

Cal Burton and Addie Miller, the two first-time candidates challenging Ridley-Thomas in the April 11 primary, are among those taking issue with his performance.

“We were in better shape before Mark Ridley-Thomas,” Burton, 49, said at his Crenshaw Boulevard headquarters. “There is an arrogance of power now.”

Miller, 45, a lifelong resident of Los Angeles, said she is running because of frustration over the area’s lack of basic services and youth programs--but abundance of gang activity. Ridley-Thomas, moreover, has lost touch with a fair number of his constituents in only his first term because he treats residents as though only he knows what is best for them, she said.

If the incumbent is reelected, said Miller, “You’re going to get four more years of the same old mess.”

For his part, Ridley-Thomas, 40, said that his first term as a City Council member has been highly productive, helping to generate about $30 million in new development projects. Such revitalization has not been seen in the troubled district for years, he said.

And the area, which was devastated by the riots three years ago, is steadily improving despite years of decay due to neglect and abuse, he said.

To many observers, Ridley-Thomas appears tough to beat. He has received endorsements by people such as congressmen Julian C. Dixon (D-Los Angeles) and Walter R. Tucker III (D-Compton), Los Angeles County supervisors Yvonne Brathwaite Burke and Gloria Molina and City Council members Rita Walters, Mike Hernandez and Richard Alarcon.

He also enjoys a strong foundation of support from local churches, and even his challengers acknowledge that they cannot compete with Ridley-Thomas when it comes to the tens of thousands of dollars he has raised for his campaign.

Since his election in 1991, Ridley-Thomas said, his efforts have included vigorous pressure on the Los Angeles Police Department to improve community-based policing and safety in neighborhoods.

In addition, he has encouraged residents to be more involved in the area’s growth--15 neighborhood councils help him identify problems and seek solutions--and pushed for the opening of more supermarkets and fewer liquor stores in the district, he said.

“I’ve sustained a regular and very high profile,” Ridley-Thomas said during a campaign stop at his Vermont Avenue headquarters. “I think it will be appreciated that we will have made a substantial dent.

“The problems are far greater than any single individual can be held responsible for. No single individual controls the state of the economy, for example,” he said. “My job is to help change that impression (of the community).”

The incumbent, who was executive director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Greater Los Angeles for 10 years before joining the council, said the depth of his opponents’ devotion is unproved.

“Their commitment to residents of the 8th District is unclear and their capacity to serve is not particularly evident,” said Ridley-Thomas, who lives in Leimert Park with his wife, Avis, and their twin sons, Sebastian and Sinclair, 7.

But Burton, of Baldwin Hills, and Miller, of South-Central, said their devotion to local residents is more sincere than Ridley-Thomas’.

Their lack of experience as politicians will not keep them from pushing issues like the need for more jobs and affordable housing, they said.

Miller, who describes herself as a community advocate currently devoted to the campaign full-time, said she knows firsthand how the shortcomings of politicians have hurt poor residents. Nothing is being done to provide hope for local youths, she said.

“I’m running to do something for these kids,” said Miller, who is single and has no children. “The system is pitiful. There’s people out there who are angry.”

Burton, a longtime television broadcaster and business executive, said he entered the campaign because so many of the people he knows are upset with Ridley-Thomas.

The incumbent has not done enough to generate business opportunities or to help families improve their lives, and the result is likely to be a runoff following the primary, he said.

“This is a great city and I think we’re going to make it,” said Burton, a divorced father of three daughters. “But the only way we’re going to make it is to get rid of politicians who don’t get the job done.”

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Council District 8: The district includes all or parts of Baldwin Hills, Leimert Park, University Park, Vermont Knolls and South-Central Los Angeles.