L.A. ELECTIONS / 10th DISTRICT : Holden vs. Sanders on Voters’ Key Concerns : Incumbent says affirmative action and crime control are important issues. He continues to support Chief Williams.

Q: How important an issue is affirmative action in your district ?

A: I think it’s important. With the so-called civil rights initiative making the headlines around the the country and certainly here in Los Angeles, it’s on the minds of people in my generation. More than, I think, of younger people.

We know what the struggle is about. We know what it was like before the so-called affirmative action programs and we don’t want to roll back the clock.

Q: In relation to crime, though, would you say that overall in most peoples’ minds, crime is a bigger concern ?

A: You know, as a candidate running for office, yes. [But] I walked the precinct the other day and a lady said to me, “See that tree is coming to that lamp post over there, and it’s bothering me.” To her that’s a big issue right now. Crime is something that we can address and offer solutions to down the road, today and tomorrow and so on. But she better get that tree cut right now.

Q: What about Mayor Riordan on affirmative action? Is he somebody that you’ll be able to support when he runs for reelection?

A: I don’t care who it is. If they’re not strong on affirmative action then they’re not supportive of me.

Q: Should the mayor reappoint [LAPD Chief] Willie Williams?

A: At this point in time there’s no reason why Willie Williams should not be the chief. Crime is down. We all admit that. We have more police officers. Better trained. You have few people if any complaining about police brutality, the thing that caused the Rodney King incident. So I think he’s doing a good job.

Q: But should he be reappointed?

A: If there’s no reason for him not being there, then of course, there’s a good reason for him to be reappointed because he’s doing what we want him to do.

Q: As you walk through your district campaigning, do people want to talk about Chief Williams and that incident [the Police Commission’s reprimand of the chief for allegedly lying about receiving free accommodations in Las Vegas]?

A: Yeah, they just say, “Support the chief.” Overwhelmingly.

Q: What will you do to reduce crime in your district ?

A: I support Proposition 1, and always have. We’ve got about 11 police stop-in stations in my district, we have a high visibility presence, where crime has virtually disappeared in those areas.

We have a network of Neighborhood Watch clubs, and I bought about nine communications systems, it’s a very sophisticated walkie-talkie system. We’re going to distribute them throughout my district and they’ll be on a radio frequency between Southwest station, Wilshire, Rampart and West Hollywood.

I’m going to buy some more and we’ll train the groups on how to operate these and what frequency to operate. They’ll become additional eyes and ears and legs for the Police Department.

Q: Any other specific answers as far as crime?

A: I changed the law where you don’t have to go through the lengthy court proceedings to evict a drug dealer from your unit. That’s a Holden ordinance. Gradually, but every time I find a loophole in the law which permits drug dealers to continue to operate, then I try and close it, and my legislative program will so indicate.

We just need more police presence. Even volunteers. You can have people with just radio and maybe a nightstick and they’re from the neighborhood. And they can be our eyes, ears and legs, and they’re not that expensive either.

They can ride with the police officer. They can walk with the police officer. And that will extend our forces and give us more more police presence on the street.

Q: I take it then that you support the mayor’s desire to beef up the police force.

A: Oh yeah, up to 10,000. That’s a given. I already said that.

Q: What do your constituents talk to you about these days?

A: They talk about crime, as I’ve already mentioned. The drug dealers, the gangs, graffiti. They’ll talk about a pothole.

Q: What would you say to those who might say that Nate Holden is good on his bread-and-butter sort of constituent services issues, but he’s not a guy with a big vision?

A: The fact of the matter is you’ve got to be doing what’s reasonable and feasible. At some point in time you have to stop dreaming. When you sell people on dreams, and then you’re unable to fulfill those those dreams, that’s when they become unglued. And so I’m not about deceiving anybody. I’m just going to give them their facts as I know them to be.

Q: Latinos make up the largest single racial group in your district. You have a majority that is Latino or Asian American. Yet politics in the district is still very much dominated by African Americans and to a lesser degree by whites. Is that a problem ?

A: Francisco Lopez, who just became a police officer, just left my staff. He was working with Latinos, and they felt comfortable with him because he speaks Spanish.

And with the Korean community, you know that we’ve always worked well with them. I always had Korean-speaking deputies. They don’t feel left out at all. In fact, their population has grown and so has their business.

Q: Speaking of your staff, you were accused of sexually harassing several women on your staff and you’ve said that you’re confident that you’ll be vindicated. Why?

A: The lady accused me of creating a sexually charged office. I can say this: She worked for 3 1/2 years in my district office and the deposition will show that I never visited that office in those 3 1/2 years when she was there. Based on her own testimony. I went there for evening meetings. Then how can I charge the office? How can I do anything in the office?

Q: What good things can you say about Stan Sanders?

A: Well, I can’t think of any. I would like very much to, but I can’t.

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Los Angeles City Councilman Nate Holden is locked in a tough reelection battle with lawyer J. Stanley Sanders. Voters on Tuesday will decide which man will represent the 10th District, which includes parts of Koreatown, West Adams, the Crenshaw district and the Wilshire Boulevard corridor. Among the top issues in the race have been crime and economic development. The candidates were interviewed separately this week by a panel of Times editors and reporters. These excerpts were compiled by Times staff writer PETER Y. HONG.