Police Fraternal Organizations Feel Fraternal Toward Sherman

When it comes to courting the cop vote, 24th Congressional District candidates Brad Sherman and Rich Sybert are pulling out all the stops.

Sherman has won the support of the Assn. for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs, the Ventura County Deputy Sheriffs Assn., the Peace Officers Research Assn. of California, the Border Patrol Supervisors Assn., the Professional Peace Officers Assn. of Los Angeles County, the Southern California Alliance of Law Enforcement, the International Union of Police Assns. and the Los Angeles County Safety Police Assn.

“Collectively,” said a statement from Sherman’s camp, “these groups represent virtually every line-level officer working on patrol and custody assignments in the 24th Congressional District.”

The response from Sybert’s headquarters: “It’s certainly stretching it, as Brad Sherman has been doing this whole campaign, to suggest that he has the endorsement of virtually every police group in the world,” said John Theiss, Sybert’s campaign manager.

The Sybert camp reports endorsements from the California State Sheriffs Assn., Ventura County Dist. Atty. Michael Bradbury, Los Angeles County Sheriff Sherman Block and Ventura County Sheriff Larry Carpenter. Other groups have stayed out of the race, Theiss said.

While Sherman may have hauled in more endorsements from police groups, Sybert claims to have the support of more individual officers.

“You talk to any cop on the street and they’ll say they’re Republican and they support Rich Sybert,” Theiss said. Theiss also downplayed the importance of police groups altogether, saying many of them are “vintage labor unions” that typically back Democrats.

Harder to explain was why two of the groups that endorsed Sherman in this race, the Ventura County Deputy Sheriffs Assn. and the Assn. for Los Angeles County Deputy Sheriffs, had endorsed Sybert in 1994, when he tried to unseat Rep. Anthony C. Beilenson (D-Woodland Hills).

Peace Pipe It may be time to rewrite the old adage about how you can’t fight City Hall. Today, a more accurate saying might be: You can fight City Hall but it may not be a wise business decision.

Take the case of Pacific Pipeline System Inc., which has proposed building a 132-mile pipeline to carry 130,000 barrels of crude oil per day from Kern County to Wilmington.

Pacific Pipeline started as a partnership among Unocal, Chevron, Texaco and the Anschutz Co.

But strong opposition from several City Council members who worried about the environmental impact of the line has delayed the $170-million project. The city has filed two court appeals to halt the project.

In July, Unocal pulled out of the partnership, citing delays in the approval process.

This week, Chevron and Texaco pulled out as well after Pacific Pipeline decided to get tough with City Hall and asked a judge to approve the firms’ use of eminent domain powers to build the line.

But Jim Shamas, a Pacific Pipeline executive, said Chevron and Texaco did not pull out because they no longer believe in the project. He said the two megafirms cut out because “they are averse to bad relations with the city. . . . They still do a lot of business in Los Angeles.”

Pacific Pipeline, he said, is now wholly owned by Anschutz. Chevron and Texaco, however, have signed long-term agreements to ship oil through the line once it’s built, he said.

Although some opponents of the pipeline say such events indicate that the city is winning a war of attrition with Pacific Pipeline, Shamas said the project is moving forward.

In fact, pipeline construction has begun in Santa Clarita, and the city of South Gate has approved Pacific Pipeline laying pipe beneath streets in that community.

Part-Time Partners The relationship between Mayor Richard Riordan and the Los Angeles City Council has become so strained lately that it is difficult to find a council member who could be considered a Riordan ally.

The only recent exception has been Joel Wachs, who two weeks ago stood before the council and described himself as a “Riordan supporter.”

In the past week, however, Wachs has become the most vocal critic of Riordan’s latest pet project: a proposed $120-million sports arena near the downtown Convention Center to host the Los Angeles Kings hockey and Lakers basketball teams.

Although Riordan has a conflict of interest that keeps him from officially pushing the project (he owns land near the site), he has made no secret of his personal support for the project.

But Wachs has questioned the plan, wondering why the city should have to pony up $60.5 million in bond revenues to provide and prepare the land for the project.

“I’m a Laker fan and I’m a Kings fan,” he said. “But I don’t want to spend our taxpayer dollars to bring them here.”

Wachs took it a step further this week, when he opened a 24-hour telephone hotline to receive citizens’ complaints about the proposal. As of Thursday the line had received more than 450 calls, most of them opposed to the project.

But unlike some past disputes between Riordan and council members, this disagreement apparently has not hurt their relationship.

“Certainly, people can agree to disagree,” said Noelia Rodriguez, Riordan’s spokeswoman. “They are still allies with regards to making changes to make City Hall more efficient.”

Greg Nelson, Wachs’ chief deputy, agreed. “There are going to be times when reasonable people disagree and that hasn’t changed things,” he said.

QUOTABLE: “I see President Clinton as more of a parent and Mr. Dole as more of a grandparent and removed from our generation.”

Ryan Erich, a student at Chaminade College Preparatory High School after hearing Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole speak on his campus

Lacey reported from Washington, D.C., and Martin from Los Angeles.