5 Council Seats at Stake Tuesday : Elections: Challengers hope an anti-incumbent mood will help them narrow the odds, which favor current officeholders. A district-by-district look.

Forget national politics for now.

It’s the officeholder closest to home who can go a long way toward making your life miserable or manageable in the next four years. Police. Potholes. Parking. All are the purview of city councils.

So if you’re a Los Angeles resident and inclined to vote, Tuesday is your chance to make a difference in this year’s City Council elections. The polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Voter information is available at (213) 485-3581.

Five races on the ballot are in council districts that include Westside turf. Here’s a brief look:

5th District

Mike Feuer’s attack piece on Roberta Weintraub shows who he thinks he has to elbow aside in the final days of the race to replace Zev Yaroslavsky in this Westside-Valley district.

Most observers predict that Barbara Yaroslavsky, Zev’s wife, will make it into a runoff largely on the strength of name recognition (the seat came open following her husband’s election to the County Board of Supervisors last November). The question is: Who will be her opponent--political newcomer Feuer, the former director of the Bet Tzedek legal services clinic, or Weintraub, a longtime member of the Los Angeles Unified School District board who is running on her record?

The fourth candidate in the hotly contested race is Sherman Oaks businessman Jeff Brain.

Fighting to keep Weintraub out of the second spot, Feuer skewered her record in a hard-hitting campaign mailer sent to thousands of homes in the district. It accused her of being profligate and hypocritical, saying she doubled her school board salary and hired a personal assistant while maintaining that there was no money to increase teachers’ pay.

Weintraub hit back in a Thursday news conference, calling the charges “total lies” and accusing Feuer of portraying himself as “Mr. Clean” while engaging in “dirty politics.”

Feuer’s mailer charged Weintraub with “looking the other way while a private contractor stole more than $700,000 in funds from the school district.” But Weintraub said it was she who blew the whistle on the contractor.

The Feuer campaign said it stands by the veracity of its campaign literature.

Other carping in this race has come from Weintraub, who accuses Barbara Yaroslavsky of relying on the power of her name and bypassing numerous campaign forums.

Yaroslavsky, competing aggressively with Weintraub, has been sending out pink mailers showing she is supported by County Supervisor Gloria Molina and Kathleen Brown, among others.

Dogged throughout the campaign by questions about whether she possesses the qualifications to succeed her husband, Yaroslavsky has cited her extensive community activism. She calls questions about her competence sexist.

Feuer, meanwhile, is hoping for help from voters concerned about crime and political reform.

Though there are some differences in the candidates’ political planks, the main issue so far in the race seems to be: Who most deserves Zev Yaroslavsky’s mantle as a leader at City Hall?

10th District

Don’t invite City Councilman Nate Holden and challenger Stan Sanders to the same dinner party.

Their race has resembled a mud-wrestling match.

The two have been spewing so much vitriol each other’s way that the third candidate, Deputy Dist. Atty. Kevin Ross, can hardly get a word in edgewise.

All three are seeking to represent one of the city’s most diverse districts, an area that includes Koreatown, Mid-City, West Adams and parts of Crenshaw.

Holden is running for a third four-year term on the City Council. He is a nuts-and-bolts politico who learned from his former boss, retired County Supervisor Kenneth Hahn, to keep constituents happy by fixing the potholes.

Sanders is attacking Holden for voting to reinstate Police Chief Daryl F. Gates when he was put on leave after the Rodney G. King beating. He is also drawing attention to pending allegations of sexual harassment against Holden made by three of the councilman’s former staff members.

Most political observers believe Sanders has made headway in his challenge, but Holden is using mailers and campaign appearances to fight back against the challenger, a Rhodes scholar who compares himself to President Clinton. Sanders, an attorney, ran in the last mayoral election and threw his support to eventual victor Richard Riordan after losing in the primary.

Sanders’ connection to the mayor has become a campaign issue in a district where Riordan is drawing criticism from black leaders, who met recently to express their disappointment in him.

Against this backdrop, Holden sent out a mailer in the overwhelmingly Democratic district saying Sanders supports Republicans. Though it didn’t mention Riordan, Holden has since conceded that the Sanders-Riordan connection was the point he was trying to get across.

The mayor has stayed neutral in the race.

6th District

Eight years have passed since grass-roots candidate Ruth Galanter pulled off an upset victory over then-council President Pat Russell.

Now, as the former city planner seeks a third term in office, the shoe is on the other foot. Some district residents complain that she has gotten out of touch with the folks--the same charge she used successfully against Russell.

But unlike Galanter in her successful insurgency eight years ago, none of her challengers appear to have the momentum, money or volunteers to successfully exploit whatever disenchantment there is.

Galanter’s opponents, businessman Sal Grammatico, city staffer Richard Niezgodzki and graphic designer Jill Prestup, believe otherwise.

Hoping to push her into a runoff, they say Galanter ignores the district’s problems and the wishes of constituents, preferring instead to advance her own agenda.

But though Galanter has some vocal critics, she also has solid accomplishments to present to voters--among them the new police academy in Westchester, the long-awaited repair of the Venice Canals and the widening of Venice Boulevard.

8th District

City Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas is running for a second term with all the accouterments of an incumbent: money and endorsements from church leaders and the local political establishment.

He is considered a prohibitive favorite for reelection, but that hasn’t stopped a pair of political newcomers, community activist Cal Burton and television broadcaster and businessman Addie Miller, from hammering away at him.

They say Ridley-Thomas has not delivered much-needed services and economic development to the district, which includes Baldwin Hills, Leimert Park and South-Central Los Angeles.

Moreover, they describe the councilman as stubborn and arrogant.

Ridley-Thomas disputes the criticism, saying the district is steadily recovering from the devastation of the 1992 riots.

Additionally, Ridley-Thomas said he has pressed the Police Department to improve community policing and neighborhood safety.

4th District

John Ferraro is one officeholder who has shown no signs of succumbing to anti-incumbent fever.

He has quietly won reelection to the City Council since the late 1960s, a streak that is expected to continue despite opposition from Hancock Park activist Linda W. Lockwood.

Although Lockwood says Ferraro’s nearly three decades in office have made him unresponsive, she faces a major hurdle in persuading the district’s voters to replace him. She lacks name recognition and the money to rectify that handicap.

Ferraro has been investing his political funds in a mail campaign that stresses his ability to get city services for his constituents.