Animal Regulation Panelist Vows to Resist Move to Oust Him

Tarzana resident Russ Cook, a member of the city’s Animal Regulation Commission, is getting the old heave-ho by the man who appointed him to the panel: Mayor Richard Riordan.

Riordan has recommended that the City Council remove Cook from the panel, saying he has caused too many disruptions and feuds with fellow commissioners and staff members.

But Cook is a also former Marine who has vowed not to go out without a fight.

And he is not going to do battle alone. Several members of animal rights organizations have promised to back him up by lobbying the council to keep him on the panel.

Michael Bell, president of the Wildlife Protection League, said Cook is a vocal animal advocate who is being removed because “he is not politically connected. He is a Marine.”

“This is a sock in the jaw of justice,” Bell said.

Bell and other Cook supporters plan to show up in force when the council’s Public Safety Committee meets in two weeks to consider Riordan’s recommendation. A majority of the council must agree with Riordan to dismiss Cook.

Cook concedes that he has not gotten along with his fellow commissioners because he is willing to publicly criticize staff and management for department problems.

“I see mismanagement and culpability of what is going on and then I speak about it, and because I speak about it, I’m the enemy,” he said.

Cook said he often visits city shelters “incognito” to uncover the misdeeds of shelter staff. Once he sees it, he said he identifies himself and demands some corrections. But animal regulation officials say his in-your-face criticism has often brought staff members to tears.

One of Cook’s biggest enemies on the commission is Gini Barrett, who happens to be the wife of Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar).

Last month, Barrett and Cook locked horns when Barrett blew up at Cook for criticizing a plan she drew up on long-term goals for the department. Barrett yelled an obscenity and hurled an empty water bottle toward Cook. But she missed and hit commission President Steve Afriat instead.

It is not clear if it was that incident that prompted Riordan to call for Cook’s removal, but if so, Cook said he did nothing but object to adopting the plan without further study.

“I’m the attackee, not the attacker,” he said.

Limited Appeal

Assemblyman James Rogan (R-Glendale) knows how to lose graciously--even when pet legislation is at stake.

And so he backtracked softly and reassured the Senate Rules Committee on Monday that he meant no disrespect in putting forth a measure that would have limited the number of bills they could introduce each session.

Rogan recently selected the measure as his favorite piece of legislation. He says there are too many bills and not enough time to meaningfully analyze them before casting a vote.

How many is that?

In the 1995-96 session, 6,600 bills were introduced in both houses. That’s an average of 44 bills per Assembly member and 55 bills per senator. Currently, senators have a limit of 65 bills, while in the Assembly, the limit is 50.

Rogan wants to cut the number in half.

The Assembly has already agreed to the limit for the next session.

At the outset, Rogan conceded that there is “probably not a lot of sentiment for this.”

He was right.

State Sen. Bill Lockyer (D-Hayward) was disinclined to follow suit.

“I’ve generally regarded bill restriction proposals as a 1st Amendment issues,” Lockyer said. “To artificially restrain that I think is unwise.”

On the Dole

Reps. Howard P. “Buck” McKeon (R-Santa Clarita) and Carlos J. Moorhead (R-Glendale) will not be regular Joes when they arrive at the upcoming Republican Convention in San Diego. But they won’t be official convention delegates either.

To avoid conflict among the state’s 26 Republican congressmen--some of whom did not initially support Bob Dole’s presidential bid--the governor’s office and Dole campaign opted to keep all California congressmen off the state’s delegate list.

Convention organizers did not want to be in the position of dividing the state’s delegation by selecting only those who showed the most loyalty to Dole. McKeon had initially endorsed Gov. Pete Wilson’s presidential bid, although he is now a Dole booster. Moorhead offered a relatively lukewarm endorsement of Dole.

Although they will not be delegates, California congressmen will have the same full convention floor privileges as their colleagues in other states. They will not be able to vote during the convention but in California all the delegates are already guaranteed to Dole because of his victory in the March primary.

Delegate or not, Moorhead will have extra-special status as a retiring GOP lawmaker.

His colleagues will toast him at a special farewell ceremony Saturday night at Sea World. And on Wednesday night, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers will also honor Moorhead.

Secession South

As far as Celes King III is concerned, if secession is a good idea for the San Fernando Valley, why not have South-Central Los Angeles also break away from Los Angeles?

King, California state chairman of the Congress of Racial Equality, said he has asked an advisor to his group to study the possibility of forming a separate city.

He said the people in South-Central are underserved and may do better on their own.

Because of his interest in a secession, King said he is closely following the debate in Sacramento over thea bill by Assemblywoman Paula Boland (R-Granada Hills) that would remove the City Council’s power to veto a secession movement.

But his secession threats appeared to have been prompted by his anger toward Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas, who represents parts of South-Central.

King said Ridley-Thomas does not listen to his constituents.

“I thought we still lived in a constitutional democracy,” he said.

Ridley-Thomas rejected King’s criticism that he is unresponsive, saying he created a citizens group in his district known as the empowerment congress.

In addition, he said that there is no widespread support for secession in South-Central. “There is no talk of secession at all,” he said.

*

QUOTABLE: “Those who refuse to consider constructive suggestions might wind up with nothing at all.”

--State Sen. President Pro Tem Bill Lockyer,

on the refusal of Assemblywoman Paula Boland

to compromise on her Valley secession measure

Martin reported from Los Angeles, Hill-Holtzman from Sacramento and Lacey from Washington, D.C.