Command Performance Ends Council Career the Braude Way

After 32 years in office, Los Angeles City Councilman Marvin Braude wrapped up his tenure in City Hall this week with several ceremonies, speeches and dedications.

But it was also a week that brought a test of his political and personal skills.

On Tuesday, more than 250 burly longshore workers converged on the council meeting to protest a coal storage facility on Terminal Island that they say will create a health hazard for nearby workers.

In addition, religious leaders, police and anti-gang advocates came to the meeting to demand funding for an anti-gang program in the northeast San Fernando Valley. As a show of support, they brought with them about two dozen gang members.

With that kind of testosterone in one room, anything can happen.

As it turns out, longtime Council President John Ferraro was out of town on business. The second in charge, President Pro Tempore Joel Wachs, was on a trip to Germany. The third in charge, Assistant President Pro Tempore Mike Hernandez, was absent because his mother died.

That left Braude in charge of what was expected to be a high-charged meeting.

Several City Hall insiders privately worried that Braude, 76, couldn’t be firm enough to lead the meeting.

But Braude ran an orderly session, despite angry testimony from anti-gang leaders who failed to get their funding and boisterous applause from longshore workers who persuaded the council to keep the coal facility closed until environmental tests are completed.

“I knew he could do it,” Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas said.

Building Blocs

Senate President Pro Tem Bill Lockyer (D-Hayward) isn’t the only state attorney general hopeful looking to the San Fernando Valley for support.

Republican Dave Stirling, second in command to current Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren, was in Northridge getting acquainted, or in some cases reacquainted, with the local GOP crowd.

In any statewide race, the Valley is a critical voting bloc, Stirling said in an interview, especially for a Republican.

While he has a campaign brochure to pass around, Stirling is holding off on officially declaring his candidacy until Lungren declares he’s running for governor.

“I’m going to be a candidate for attorney general as sure as he’s going to be a candidate for governor,” Stirling told a group of about 40.

Translation: You can bet on it.

A former assemblyman from the San Gabriel Valley, Stirling lost a bid to be the GOP candidate for attorney general in 1982. He has since served as general counsel to the Agricultural Labor Relations Board and as a Superior Court Judge in Sacramento, making headlines when he ordered a mother not to smoke in her child’s presence.

At Wednesday’s gathering, Stirling stressed his law enforcement credentials, but warned that tough incarceration policies must be coupled with early intervention in kids’ lives to prevent another generation of criminals.

Noting that what he was about to say would sound like “softheaded” liberalism if it came from Lockyer’s mouth, Stirling said, “If we really want to do something about the future, we have to focus on what children’s lives are today.”

Lockyer’s name was raised in former LAPD Chief and State Sen. Ed Davis’ introduction of Stirling.

Davis, as salty as ever, recalled that when Lockyer first was named chairman of the Judiciary Committee, he wanted to kick Davis off the panel.

While the GOP leadership was willing to do just that, Davis balked.

“I said, ‘Screw Lockyer,’ ” Davis said. “I just didn’t like the idea of having some overgrown liberal baby have all this petulance.”

After his speech, Stirling said he is a better fit for Valley voters than Lockyer.

“Bill doesn’t speak Valley,” Stirling said.

Bill and Coo

Speaking of Lockyer, he appears to be back in the good graces of at least some Valley backers of secession legislation.

That’s because he held a successful, secret meeting with three leaders of Valley VOTE in Sacramento Wednesday--a get-together that even Assembly sponsors of the secession bill didn’t know about until after it took place.

The co-chairmen of the group, Jeff Brain and Richard Close, attended the meeting with Bruce Bialosky.

Brain and Close said they were reassured by Lockyer that the bill on secession co-sponsored by Assembly members Tom McClintock (R-Northridge) and Bob Hertzberg (D-Sherman Oaks) would move smoothly through the state Senate.

“He supports the bill and he’ll let it be known he supports the bill,” Brain said.

Added Brain, “We feel better.”

Rail Splitters

One day after the Los Angeles City Council united to force the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to begin construction of a San Fernando Valley rail line by 2007, the unity evaporated in another dispute over the same rail line.

First some background: Earlier this month, the MTA adopted a transit planning package that put off construction of the Valley line until 2011.

The council--led by Valley lawmakers--responded by voting to withhold $200 million in city funds to the MTA unless the Valley line is started by 2007. The MTA agreed and the council voted unanimously on Wednesday to settle the dispute.

But on Thursday, the council was bickering again, this time among its own members.

Councilman Hal Bernson, who represents the northwest Valley, brought forth a motion asking the MTA to consider putting a Metrolink commuter train along the route where the MTA plans to build a more expensive subway line.

He argued that the MTA will never have the money to build a subway in the Valley. Besides, the at-grade commuter trains can be built at a fraction of the cost and in less than half the time, he said.

But council members Laura Chick, Mike Feuer and Nate Holden thought Bernson’s idea was a bit off track. Chick and Feuer’s districts are along the Valley’s proposed rail route.

They have argued that a commuter train, which is the size of a conventional freight train, would create too much noise, fumes and traffic in residential areas.

Holden further argued that the Metrolink proposal would give the MTA a cheap way to meet its Valley commitment.

“If you go to Metrolink, you let them off the hook,” he said.

Holden suggested they send the entire matter to his transportation committee for further study. But Bernson was reluctant. He suspected his critics wanted to kill the proposal in committee.

That is when Chick told Bernson that his suggestion was “a viable option” and vowed that it would not die in committee.

Later, in private, Chick amended her comments. She said she doesn’t consider the Metrolink idea a viable option. She said that just to end the debate and put the matter to rest.

As in, rest in peace?

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QUOTABLE: “I’m supporting this while holding my nose. I don’t have any confidence that the 2007 deadline will be met, but we have to give it a shot.” Councilman Hal Bernson, on the deal between the council and the MTA to build a Valley subway