Gavel to Gavel

By evening, they preside over biweekly meetings of their small city councils and mingle with townsfolk at community events such as the kickoff of the annual pumpkin festival.

But by day, the mayors of Agoura Hills and Calabasas leave their tranquil hamlets, neighboring oases of semirural sensibility, for the rough-and-tumble criminal courtrooms of Los Angeles County.

There, one heads to his desk in the public defender’s office at the Van Nuys courthouse, while the other takes up his post as a deputy district attorney. Sometimes, Dan Kuperberg is defending the same clients James Bozajian is trying to put behind bars.

“I think it’s a very noble profession,” said Kuperberg, a deputy public defender who became the mayor of Agoura Hills earlier this month. “I don’t think the public always appreciates our role in the system, but to represent an indigent poor person [and] make sure they have quality legal counsel and a fair trial makes the system work.”

Calabasas Mayor Bozajian, for his part, said criminal prosecution fits his personality.

“I really find it rewarding to do a public service,” he said. “You get satisfaction out of trying a case and seeing justice done, seeing victims receive justice, and seeing people who are harmful to the community no longer preying upon the community.”

The two mayors, now assigned to the same courtroom, have often faced off in preliminary hearings.

Each praises his counterpart for fairness and professionalism.

“We get along very well, and we try to work things out if we can,” Kuperberg said. “Our goal is to work it out.”

Politically, the men often stake out opposite camps in congressional and other races. Kuperberg, a Democrat whose office is decorated with photos of his wife and sons and a tattered Vote McGovern poster, strongly backed Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks) in the last election. Bozajian, a Republican who exudes a quiet formality, endorsed Sherman’s GOP challenger, Randy Hoffman.

Despite their divergent paths, the mayors seem to have a lot in common. Their elected offices are nonpartisan, and the focus on local issues tends to obscure party differences.

“They could be twins in their approach to the law and the community,” said Michael Hoff, a Superior Court judge who oversees the courtroom to which both men are assigned. “Both of them care very much about their communities, the young people and the future.”

Both mayors speak glowingly of public service, keeping crime at bay in their small cities, supporting youth programs and shielding their communities from overdevelopment, an ill they see as having already infected much of the San Fernando Valley.

“I think the Valley’s been overdeveloped, and it’s gone way too fast,” said Bozajian, 33, who grew up in Tarzana and became Calabasas’ youngest mayor--at 32--in March. “When it’s too dense in its population, you wind up being a magnet for crime.”

Kuperberg, 40, a Utah native whose family moved to Southern California when he was 13, has been an Agoura Hills councilman since 1995. Bozajian was elected to the Calabasas council in 1997. As councilmen--and mayors--each receives a stipend of $3,600 a year.

Both Calabasas and Agoura Hills have a mayoralty that rotates among five council members, with lawmakers choosing a new mayor from their ranks each year.

“It has a heavy ceremonial responsibility,” said Louise Rishoff, a longtime Agoura Hills councilwoman who has been mayor twice. All those chamber of commerce luncheons, Eagle Scout ceremonies and the like can be time-consuming, she said, but she has no doubt Kuperberg is up to the task.

“He has a very quick wit that will serve him well as mayor,” she said.

Calabasas and Agoura Hills, affluent towns born after long fights to free themselves from the county’s grip on development decisions, have a number of shared projects. They are jointly constructing a $4.6-million community center, and they recently banded together with several other small cities to form a council of governments, aiming to wield more clout in regional decisions.

Agoura Hills, meanwhile, has convened a task force to study ways to permanently preserve open space, perhaps by forming a special district in conjunction with Calabasas or Westlake Village. And Calabasas runs a Teen Court, for which Bozajian serves as a jury advisor, where first-time offenders from both towns have their cases decided by a panel of their peers rather than a Juvenile Court judge.

Which reminds Bozajian--he knows just the guy to lend a hand.

“Hey,” he tells Kuperberg as they head down the courthouse corridor, “if you’re interested in serving as a jury advisor in Teen Court, or even a judge . . . “

Sure, says Kuperberg, flashing a grin. “In all my spare time.”