Lawmaker, School Board Chief Spar Over HIV/AIDS Assembly

THE WRITE STUFF: If politics makes for strange bedfellows, it certainly makes for strange pen pals. In an escalating war of words, state Assemblywoman Paula Boland (R-Granada Hills) and Board of Education President Mark Slavkin have been exchanging letters over the past month, sparked by Boland’s concern over an AIDS/HIV assembly conducted at a Woodland Hills middle school.

One parent complained about the content of the program, and Boland immediately fired off the first missive. She condemned the assembly, where students were taught about condoms, among other things, and invited the school board to conduct the same assembly for the Legislature.

Los Angeles Unified School District Supt. Sid Thompson responded to that letter, explaining that the Hale Middle School assembly was conducted by the Valley Community Clinic--not by school district staff. Further, he conceded that the presentation included some “inappropriate” materials.

Boland sent another letter to Slavkin, again requesting that the Legislature hear the same program that the teen-agers had heard in March. She said the lawmakers should be entitled to make their own decisions on the merits of the assembly.

So on March 29, Slavkin responded. “Because the district did not conduct the presentation and because it is not a fair reflection of what we would consider appropriate, I respectfully decline your invitation,” he wrote.

Undeterred, Boland sent another letter to Slavkin: “I ask you as president of the L.A. school board, why aren’t you and the school board interested in viewing a program, sponsored by the district, that you admit to being harmful to the children you are responsible for nurturing?”

Further, she wrote: “If you bought a car with a defect you would go to corporate headquarters and they wouldn’t dream of pawning you off on the foreman of the assembly line. The district is always quick to extol the so-called positive changes occurring in the school district. However, it always closes its eyes to the bad.”

For his part, Slavkin has written another response, but it has not yet been mailed.

Diane Chamberlain, the associate director of the clinic’s AIDS education program, said the assembly stressed abstinence and had been approved by the school district. “We’ve never gotten a complaint before, and we’ve done this for years,” she said.

The disagreement jumped off the page this week at a Tarzana forum attended by both Boland and Slavkin. With the pair face-to-face for the first time since their correspondence, tempers flared over the issue.

Slavkin said he was “stunned, speechless” to hear Boland “spew all these unsubstantiated rumors.” He called her complaints about the AIDS seminar “hysterical rhetoric.”

Somehow, not surprisingly, Boland got the last word. “I don’t want to burst your balloon,” she told Slavkin, “but I don’t care about you. . . . I care about the children.”

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IT’S THE SIZE THAT COUNTS: At the same forum, Boland compared the school district to the state of Rhode Island, and said it is too large to properly educate students.

“If (Thompson) wanted to meet all of his employees, he could not go to Dodger Stadium,” she said. “He’d have to go to the Rose Bowl. . . . If tomorrow he spent five minutes shaking hands with every employee, eight hours a day, five days a week, 52 weeks a year, he’d finish by Sept. 28, 1997.”

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CLOSING THE DOOR: The congressional careers of James Corman and Bobbi Fiedler long ago came to an end. Their congressional perks may be next.

Like all former members of Congress, the two ex-lawmakers from the San Fernando Valley still have access to the House floor, the cloakroom, the private dining room and the House gym.

Rep. Dick Zimmer (R-N.J.) intends to introduce legislation next month that would strip members-turned-lobbyists of those special privileges.

His so-called Revolving Door Act would also prohibit former members from using their leftover campaign funds to contribute to a federal election and permanently ban them from representing a foreign government, business or individual.

“Lobbyists who previously have held important federal positions have a distinct advantage over other lobbyists because of their contacts and insider knowledge they acquired while on the public payroll,” said Zimmer, the former director of Common Cause in New Jersey. “This legislation will stop former federal workers from cashing in on public trust.”

Neither Corman, a former Van Nuys resident who served in Congress from 1961 to 1981, nor Fiedler, who succeeded him after a tight contest, says Zimmer’s legislation would wreak havoc on his or her life.

But the former lawmakers did not offer ringing endorsements of the bill either.

“The Congress has to make the rules they think are most effective,” said Fiedler, who left Congress in 1987 after an unsuccessful U.S. Senate bid and returned to Northridge, where she does consulting and lobbying. “If they think they can’t resist persuasion by other colleagues, then this is one way of handling it.”

Fiedler has taken her grandchildren to the floor of the House on vacation and has made several other visits as well. But lobbying is already banned there, and in the adjacent cloakroom, she noted.

Corman, a Washington lobbyist, has eaten with former colleagues in the members’ dining room while representing the National Structured Settlements Trade Assn., the International Chiropractors Assn. and other groups. He says he occasionally obtains useful information in the House gym, but contends that whatever he learns there could be readily available elsewhere.

“I don’t think access means all that much,” Corman said. “I think it’s more important what your cause is and how well you articulate it.”

Zimmer, however, has a different view.

“With today’s loophole-ridden restrictions on lobbyists, it’s no wonder the public has such a cynical view of government,” he said. “The ‘Revolving Door Act’ should help to restore the public’s faith in our institutions.”

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CONVERSATION STOPPER: At the combination home-campaign headquarters of City Council candidate Roberta Weintraub on election night, supporters mingled and snacked on chips and salsa while others sat in the living room, chatting and waiting for a local TV channel to begin broadcasting the vote tabulations.

Repeated cries of “Shhh!” and an abruptly silent living room brought roving party-goers and reporters rushing over to get the scoop. As they jockeyed for an unobstructed view of the TV, they quickly realized they were indeed getting an update--but not on the election. It was the latest news on the O.J. Simpson trial.

“This is why everybody’s here,” one party-goer said sotto voce, as video footage of the infamous bloody glove flashed on screen, followed by a still shot of prosecutor Marcia Clark’s new hairdo.

Conversation reverted to its regular buzz after the O.J. update, but did quiet down again when the election returns were finally broadcast, showing Weintraub trailing eventual runoff candidates Barbara Yaroslavsky and Michael Feuer.

Aside from the vote count and the O.J. update, the only other newsworthy event to merit silence from the crowd: the announcement that San Francisco 49ers quarterback Joe Montana planned to retire.

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PARTY MIX: The election night party hosted by 5th District City Council candidate Barbara Yaroslavsky at the Beverly Plaza Hotel was a modest affair attended mostly by family, supporters and volunteers.

But among the 150 or so people in the crowded hall were some of the city’s better-known political figures, including Fiedler, Los Angeles Free Clinic co-founder Mimi West, local chapter president of the National Organization for Women Tammy Bruce and, of course, Yaroslavsky’s husband, Zev, the former councilman-turned-county supervisor.

Not a bad crowd if you want to dive into a discussion about publicly funded health-care programs, for example.

But what might have given the evening a bit more pizazz would have been appearances by some of Yaroslavsky’s star-studded supporters. According to her most recent campaign statements, she has received donations from such actors as Ed Asner, Ed Begley Jr. and Richard Dreyfuss, as well as such entertainment giants as MCA Chairman Lew Wasserman.

A short, gray-haired gentleman spotted sitting at the bar was none of the above. As he ordered a drink, he explained to a reporter that he was attending the event because his wife was an out-of-work nurse and had planned to help Yaroslavsky get elected in hopes that Yaroslavsky would repay her with a city job.

Hey, it beats sitting in line at an unemployment office.

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WISE GUY: After 26 years, the U.S. Department of Agriculture still sees Woodsy Owl as a valuable symbol in the campaign for a clean environment, so if Congress gives a hoot, it will let the agency change Woodsy’s clothes.

Rep. Carlos Moorhead (R-Glendale) introduced a bill giving the USDA permission to redesign the owl. As chairman of the courts and intellectual property subcommittee, he’s doing the USDA a favor on a “housekeeping matter,” said aide Leslie Adlam.

“This is not the major emphasis of our subcommittee,” she explained. “Carlos had to deal with Snow White a couple of years ago. People always say ‘Is that all you do?”’

As chairman of the subcommittee, the 12-term congressman will play a key role in allowing Woodsy’s redesign. The character who quips “Give a hoot. Don’t Pollute,” is protected by copyright.

“We need to assist the redesigning of Woodsy for the children of the 1990s,” Moorhead said in statement.

This column was reported by Times staff writers Beth Shuster, Henry Chu and Hugo Martin in Los Angeles, Marc Lacey in Washington, D.C. and Peter Roberson of States News Service.