ELECTIONS / L.A. CITY COUNCIL 5TH DISTRICT : Hopefuls Debate as Mailers Provoke Anger

A debate between City Council candidates Barbara Yaroslavsky and Mike Feuer Thursday was overshadowed by growing protests from community groups and elected officials who say they resent being drawn into the increasingly nasty race for the 5th District seat.

The protests were sparked by a series of hard-hitting mailers issued by Yaroslavsky as part of the more aggressive campaign she launched after coming in second to Feuer in the April 11 primary. He drew 40% of the vote to Yaroslavsky’s 26%.

Her mailers accuse Feuer of being a “typical politician” and of misrepresenting himself to win votes. But some of her literature has drawn the ire of local organizations and elected officials who claim they are being used as campaign fodder.

Nancy Endman, president of Temple Beth Hillel in Valley Village, criticized Yaroslavsky in a letter Wednesday for issuing a campaign brochure that assails Feuer for using a Beth Hillel mailing list to solicit campaign donations.

Although Feuer admits he used the mailing list without the temple’s permission, Endman called the incident an “innocent mistake” and chided Yaroslavsky for trying to take advantage of the situation. She demanded of Yaroslavsky a “public retraction to all citizens to whom you have sent your mailers.”

“I will construe your failure to promptly undertake such measures as a continuing effort to misappropriate our temple’s good name for political advantage, which may force the synagogue to consider legal action,” Endman said in the letter.

Yaroslavsky, a longtime activist, was also criticized by state Sen. Tom Hayden, who took offense at recent Yaroslavsky literature that charged Feuer with supporting “Tom Hayden’s proposal to limit homeowners’ property rights.” Yaroslavsky said the mailer refers to a measure to impose rent control on single-family homes.

But in a letter to Yaroslavsky, Hayden said he has no such proposal and never had.

“I have no idea what ‘proposal’ you are talking about, and I do not appreciate thousands of false and misleading messages about my viewpoint being mailed to voters in my district,” he said in the letter.

Yaroslavsky was also criticized in a letter by the Coalition for Economic Survival, a tenants’ rights organization that recently praised Feuer for supporting tenants’ issues.

“These recent attacks by Barbara Yaroslavsky clearly shows that she is no friend of tenants and could not be depended on to protect the city’s rent control laws,” said Larry Gross, the group’s executive director.

Feuer, the former director of a legal-aid clinic, has said that he supports the city’s rent control laws and would support extending the law to some single-family homes.

Yaroslavsky’s campaign strategist, Rick Taylor, said he stands by the literature despite the criticism.

“It seems like Mr. Feuer should be concentrating on the issues instead of having people cover up for his actions of the past,” he said.

During a debate in Studio City, in the meantime, Yaroslavsky and Feuer clashed over a controversial redevelopment plan for Sherman Oaks, among other issues.

Feuer accused Yaroslavsky of misleading voters about a plan to use redevelopment powers to hasten recovery from the Northridge quake by claiming that the plan would benefit 1,800 condominium units in Sherman Oaks that are without repair funding.

“No one believes that,” said Feuer, who opposes the redevelopment plan that was adopted last year by Yaroslavsky’s husband, former councilman Zev Yaroslavsky.

Feuer said that within the proposed redevelopment area there are only three quake-damaged condominium buildings that are without financing--a figure that was confirmed later by Gary Squier, the city’s housing director. The buildings have a total of 77 units, Squier said.

Yaroslavsky responded only by saying that she supports the plan, but solely as a last resort.

The clash took place at a forum that drew about 40 merchants and business executives and four elementary school students invited as part of a special program to participate in the event.

One of those students, 12-year-old Hanna Evron, put Feuer on the spot when she announced in front of the crowd that she had called his office three times to ask a question and had yet to receive a response. “Why haven’t you returned my call,” the girl asked.

An embarrassed Feuer sought to turn the situation around by telling Hanna that he did not have as much money as Yaroslavsky and therefore could not afford a large campaign staff to return each phone call. But he told the sixth-grader: “If you give me your number, I’ll call you after this.”

Clearly miffed, Yaroslavsky returned fire, noting that Feuer’s campaign is partly funded by city matching dollars while her campaign had declined to use taxpayer dollars. She added: “I feel it’s very important to return every call.”

The runoff election to fill the seat vacated when Zev Yaroslavsky joined the County Board of Supervisors is scheduled for June 6. The district includes Sherman Oaks, parts of Van Nuys, North Hollywood, Studio City and the Westside.