Sybert Lines Up Endorsements Before GOP Rivals Are Tempted

EARLY BIRD: Candidates usually announce their endorsements during the heat of a campaign to try to steal their opponents’ thunder. Rich Sybert, who is campaigning without any other candidates--or even an election--in sight, has bucked that trend.

Hoping to scare off potential Republican rivals, Sybert this week released a lengthy list of supporters of his bid to unseat Rep. Anthony C. Beilenson (D-Woodland Hills) in 1996.

None of Sybert’s five primary opponents from 1994 have announced an intention to run for the 24th Congressional District post, Sybert notes, nor has any other potential candidate surfaced. A lot can happen, though, in 16 months.

Sybert calls his list of endorsements, nearly 200 strong, evidence that the Republican primary will be uncontested and he will have another chance to oust Beilenson, now in his 10th term.

“I am very grateful for this early show of support,” Sybert said in a written statement, “and I will do everything I can to justify the confidence in me.”

Among the early endorsers are two local congressmen, Howard P. (Buck) McKeon (R-Santa Clarita) and Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley), and Los Angeles City Councilman Hal Bernson.

Attorney David Fleming, ARCO Chairman Lodwrick Cook and Los Angeles Housing Commissioner Mary Barrientos are also Sybert boosters. Former Los Angeles police chief Ed Davis also made the list, although Sybert’s announcement incorrectly tagged him as the head of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

Sybert is one of 14 Republican challengers nationwide who fell less than 5,000 votes short of riding November’s GOP tidal wave into office. Eleven of the 14 have indicated they will or are likely to run again, according to an Associated Press tally.

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SMASHING DEBUT: At his first meeting Wednesday as 5th District City Councilman Mike Feuer found himself briefly displaced from his new desk to make way for colleague John Ferraro, who had to join council members on the floor before they reelected him to occupy the president’s chair on the front dais.

For a few minutes, Feuer had to make do with Councilwoman Ruth Galanter’s spot to preserve the alphabetical seating pattern of the council. At the desk, underneath the glass overlay, was a photocopy of one of her favorite bumper stickers: “Smash Lawyerism.”

A Galanter aide, noticing the poke at attorneys, hurried over to remove the bumper snicker--but not before Feuer, a Harvard-trained lawyer, saw it. Galanter was abashed.

“I apologize,” she said to Feuer, who waved off the incident as a “big joke.”

In fact, Feuer is not the only attorney on the council--there’s Joel Wachs.

“I heard [Feuer’s] opponents refer to him as a ‘slick Harvard lawyer.’ It feels great to have another slick Harvard lawyer on the council,” Wachs joked during his welcoming remarks.

Feuer’s first action on the council? Moving for approval of the minutes from a meeting the previous week--which he did not attend.

The motion passed on a unanimous vote.

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DO AS I SAY, NOT AS I DO: Los Angeles Unified School District Supt. Sid Thompson, who racked up nearly 42 weeks of unused vacation through last year, issued a memo last week requesting all division heads to “encourage” employees to take a vacation on Monday before the July 4 holiday.

As part of a move to reduce the amount of stored vacation time held by employees--particularly those at the top levels--Thompson was seeking to have only skeleton crews in each department. Schools were closed Monday and Tuesday.

Thompson’s stored vacation was worth nearly $130,000 last year.

But Thompson didn’t follow his own advice. On Monday morning at 7:30, dressed sharp in suit and tie, the superintendent reported to work.

Aides said he gets more work done without all the usual distractions--meetings, telephone calls and other interruptions. And, they said, Thompson “donated” 11 unused vacation days last year.

Grumbled one district employee: “So here he is, making us take the day off, then he doesn’t.”

The memo, however, was carefully worded, telling managers to ask, not order, their employees to have some pre-holiday fun.

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SOUR NOTE: In a slap at Councilman Hal Bernson, the city Ethics Commission has told the veteran lawmaker that he cannot use money from political contributors to buy the L.A. Philharmonic box seats he has enjoyed for several years.

The panel’s executive director, Benjamin Bycel, wrote to Bernson last month, saying that if he uses the tickets himself, Bernson must pay for them out of his own pocket rather than dip into the officeholder account council members set up for contributions from supporters and lobbyists. Bernson spent $1,320 this year for season tickets to the orchestra performances.

The slap from the commission follows previous criticism that Bernson does not provide enough documentation on his use of the account, which state law limits to governmental, legislative and political purposes.

Bernson has retained an attorney to contest Bycel’s opinion.

“Councilman Bernson made an expenditure of officeholder funds in compliance with the applicable ordinance, and he will not reimburse the officeholder account from his personal funds,” Cary Davidson wrote Bycel on June 15.

Francine Oschin, an aide to Bernson, said the councilman always invites constituents to accompany him to the Philharmonic, where they can informally discuss city issues.

“We’re concerned that we’re being singled out unfairly” by the Ethics Commission, Oschin said. Bycel’s ruling is “an interpretation that’s very subjective.”

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SCHOOL IS OUT: Bill Rivera, the Los Angeles Unified School District’s chief spokesman, will retire at month’s end after serving 12 superintendents.

Rivera, who was born and reared in Canoga Park, worked for the school district from 1952 to 1988. He then spent five years as a spokesman for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. But he returned to the beleaguered school system in February of last year after his friend Sid Thompson became boss.

As to who will replace him, Rivera said: “They’ll probably replace me with six people.”

Lacey reported from Washington, D.C., and Chu and Shuster from Los Angeles.