Mercer, Miscikowski Mail Makes Much of Gated Community-Gate

With their few joint appearances behind them, candidates vying to represent the 11th City Council District have, for the most part, disappeared from public view this week as they wage their campaigns through the mail and door-to-door.

Fund-raising was also a high priority as both Tarzana resident Georgia Mercer and Brentwood resident Cindy Miscikowksi held major events this week.

Mercer’s Monday night fund-raiser in Bel-Air was hosted by the mayor’s significant other, Nancy Daly, while Miscikowski’s event was Thursday at a San Fernando Valley hotel.

And no, Mayor Richard Riordan, Mercer’s former boss, did not attend the event at Daly’s house. He’s staying neutral in the race.

Campaign fund-raising reports are due today. Miscikowski’s consultant, Rick Taylor, said their report, which was not available Thursday, would show $123,011 raised between the April 8 primary and the cutoff date last weekend. That sum includes matching funds from the city. Miscikowski will report $75,227 in the bank for the final push, Taylor said.

The runoff election is June 3.

Mercer’s report showed $170,792, including matching funds raised, with $84,574 in the bank.

Crossing in the mail this week were mailers from each campaign with their spin on the ongoing issue of Miscikowski’s unique gated community and what it means.

Miscikowski’s mailer defended the gates as an example of empowering a community to get what it needed from City Hall. She says she played no role in getting special favors for herself and her neighbors.

The City Council voted to deed public streets to the neighbors and allow them to gate their community as a preemptive strike against traffic from the as-yet-unopened Getty Museum.

A Mercer mailer to Valley voters this week attacked the gates again. It features an Encino woman who said she tried to get gates in her own neighborhood, but Miscikowski allegedly told her the council would never go for it.

Consultants for both campaigns report that things look good for their clients.

Mercer is not taking her 900-vote primary lead for granted, and Miscikowski has gotten more aggressive in attacking the front-runner.

But it was a remark in another Mercer mailer that had Taylor up in arms and on the phone to his lawyer Thursday.

The piece, signed by former Police Protective League President Danny Staggs, “alerted” voters that Miscikowski’s consultant, who was not identified, had lied two years ago about Councilman Mike Feuer.

“It’s a sign of desperation,” said Taylor, who is threatening to sue Mercer, Staggs and Mercer consultant Larry Levine.

Levine’s response: “Well, that’s just Rick at the end of a campaign.”

MTA Backlash

Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky’s recent broadside against the Metropolitan Transportation Authority on the television show “Life & Times” has elicited some harsh dissenting responses during the past week.

Yaroslavsky appeared on the show to accuse the MTA of suffering a “total breakdown in discipline [and a] total breakdown in management.” Later, he called the agency “too corrupt” and said it would be his “pleasure” to lead a fight to repeal the sales taxes that helped fund the MTA if the agency “didn’t clean up their act.”

Finally, Yaroslavsky cast aspersions on fellow MTA board members Richard Alatorre (an L.A. City Council member) and John Fasana (a City Council member from Duarte), as well as state Sen. Richard Polanco (D-Los Angeles).

In response, Polanco penned a letter to the show, pointing out that Yaroslavsky is himself a member of the MTA board--which oversees the agency he criticized as “too corrupt.”

“Throughout the interview, Mr. Yaroslavsky talked about the MTA as if he had no responsibility for its failings,” Polanco wrote. “He distanced himself from the scandals as if he has no role. . . . Mr. Yaroslavsky is a member of the MTA board. The issues referenced during the ‘Life & Times’ interview have taken place on Mr. Yaroslavsky’s watch.”

Yaroslavsky’s “performance . . . was that of a cornered political animal,” according to Polanco.

Further, Polanco’s letter stated that “inexplicably, over several months Mr. Yaroslavsky has established a pattern of making irresponsible allegations against Latino lawmakers. In February, he accused Congress members Lucille Roybal-Allard, Xavier Becerra and Esteban Torres of ‘blackmail’ when they advocated more funding for rail in transit dependent communities in the San Gabriel Valley. In March, he accused Supervisor [Gloria] Molina, Assembly members [Antonio] Villaraigosa (D-Los Angeles), [Martin] Gallegos (D-Irwindale) and [Martha] Escutia (D-Huntington Park); and Senators [Charles] Calderon (D-Montebello), [Hilda] Solis (D-El Monte) and myself of ‘blackmail’ when we advocated that the new County-USC hospital have sufficient beds to adequately serve the community.”

Yaroslavsky’s camp declined to comment on the controversy he sparked.

But Polanco’s letter makes it clear that he thinks legislation he has introduced to trim three of the five posts reserved for county supervisors on the MTA board led to Yaroslavsky’s comments.

“The discussion focused solely on Zev Yaroslavsky’s view of how my bill would impact Zev Yaroslavsky,” the letter stated.

More Verbal Sparring

Sometimes, when emotions get the best of the Los Angeles City Council, the marbled council chambers in City Hall take on the air of a mosh pit.

Take this week, when the council considered an innovative, $10.6-million shuttle program to be tested in the San Fernando Valley and central Los Angeles.

It appeared the entire council supported the two-year pilot program, which will be funded with transit tax dollars. The exception was Councilman Nate Holden, head of the council’s Transportation Committee, who called the program “a lousy, lousy idea.”

Holden predicted that after the two-year test period expired, the program would fail and the city would be forced to fund the program endlessly.

“In two years, I will come back and tell you I told you so,” he bellowed.

That is when Councilman Hal Bernson responded, charging that Holden’s pessimistic attitude would have put the brakes on Christopher Columbus’ trip to America.

“I’m sure that when Queen Isabella offered to fund the journey to the New World, one of your ancestors said, ‘But this will run out of money in two years,’ ” Bernson quipped.

Holden laughed at the analogy, but lost the vote, 13 to 1.

Dog Fight

Round 2 in the debate between the city’s Animal Services Department and the local chapter of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals took place Thursday as the SPCA blasted the city agency for its handling of the mysterious killing of the Encino pug dog named Pal.

The dog died last month, after its owner--an 84-year-old woman--found it skinned in her backyard.

Experts brought in by both the Animal Services Department and the SPCA have examined the dog’s corpse. But the conclusions have been diametrically opposed.

The city agency believes the dog was the victim of a coyote attack, but the SPCA believes the dog was skinned by a sadistic human.

On Thursday, Councilman Holden--who supports the SPCA’s position--held a news conference with Madeline Bernstein, executive director of the SPCA’s local chapter, to release its evidence to City Atty. James K. Hahn.

Both sides agree that a large portion of the dog’s pelt was removed and that the dog suffered puncture wounds around the neck and face.

The Animal Services Department contends that the puncture wounds were made by coyote bites. Bernstein said her experts believe the punctures were made by a knife or an ice pick.

But during the news conference, Bernstein took her own jab at the Animal Services Department, saying the city agency is made up “essentially of dog catchers” and does not have the expertise to determine the cause of the dog’s death.

Expect a counterattack by the city agency.

Hahn, meanwhile, tried to avoid taking sides, saying he is keeping an open mind on the matter. But added: “It’s difficult to rule out a human suspect.”

Maiden Voyage

Freshman Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks), a member of the House Budget Committee, has just come through his first go-round with the federal budget, which was approved in a marathon session that ended at 3:30 a.m. Wednesday.

Sherman reports he was one of a bipartisan group of first-year members of Congress to attend a news conference urging passage of the budget.

Sherman said bipartisan news conferences are pretty unusual inside the Beltway, but a sign that new members of Congress are trying to show the country they are there to work, not fight with one another.

The former member of the state Board of Equalization, who is a CPA and a tax attorney, said the biggest drama of the budget vote night was an attempt by Pennsylvania GOP Rep. Bud Shuster to grab more money for transportation.

Shuster’s motion went down by just two votes, with Sherman, along with the rest of the Valley delegation--Reps. Howard Berman (D-Mission Hills), Henry Waxman (D-Los Angeles), Howard “Buck” McKeon (R-Santa Clarita) and James Rogan (R-Glendale) all voting against the last-minute budget change.

Sherman said his biggest accomplishment this year was to get $700 million in parklands acquisition money from the 1998 budget freed up to spend right away.

At least, that’s how it stands in the House budget. The next challenge is to get the Senate to agree, Sherman said.