‘Anyone But Zev’ Candidates Take Final Shot at Their Nemesis

County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky marked 23 years in public office this week, and, barring some unforeseen cataclysm, voters on Tuesday will most likely return him to his job representing the prosperous 3rd District.

He raised so much more money than his three little-known opponents--more than $1 million to their few thousand dollars--and has received so much more publicity that his challengers have actually joined forces to fight him.

So while Yaroslavsky--who insists he takes no election for granted, no matter how good the numbers look--prepares for a second term, his three opponents have planned a flurry of last-minute campaigning.

Shane McLoud, a 30-year old schoolteacher who once worked for Supervisor Deane Dana, plans to spend the next five days driving around the 3rd District in his father’s blue Ford pickup truck, which he has outfitted with anti-Yaroslavsky billboards.

McLoud, who has financed his shoestring campaign mostly with his own money and donations from friends and family, spent most of Thursday preparing the signs.

“I’m just waiting to take the canvas out of the dryer,” he said when reached by telephone on Thursday. “Then I’m going to paint it.”

Another candidate, Republican C.J. MacDonald, enlisted the help of local taggers to prepare his own sign, which plugged his candidacy with bright, graffiti-like artwork.

“They were all kids who were in trouble for tagging,” MacDonald said. “We had them create quite a colorful trailer here.”

McLoud, MacDonald and Peace and Freedom Party candidate Casey Peters--who have dubbed themselves the ABZ (Anyone but Zev) slate--will finally get a chance to face Yaroslavsky on the KCRW-FM (89.9) program “Which Way L.A.?” today at 1 p.m. (rebroadcast at 7 p.m.).

The three candidates have said that their goal is for one of them--any one of them--to force Yaroslavsky into a runoff. But they concede that they don’t have much of a shot.

“People have told me I should not have picked a fight with Godzilla,” McLoud said. “But what I’ve brought out is true, and what I’ve said is true.”

While McLoud plans the rest of his summer--as a teacher, he’s off for another four weeks--Yaroslavsky is setting goals for the next four years.

Priorities, he said, will be maintaining the county’s financial stability and turning toward issues relating to health care, foster care and adoption for children.

“We have far too many kids between the ages of 6 and 16 who are just not getting medical care,” Yaroslavsky said. “Half the kids in our schools do not get looked at by physician or nurse for an acute earache.”

Reflecting on his 23 years in office, Yaroslavsky took a swipe at his previous job, on the Los Angeles City Council.

“The issues we are dealing with at the county are life-and-death issues,” he said, such as health care. “We’re not talking about traffic congestion.” Yaroslavsky said he will wait for election returns at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles, where a number of Democratic candidates, including Lt. Gov. Gray Davis, plan to set up shop.

“I have a number of people I’m supporting for the state legislative races,” said Yaroslavsky, who has endorsed Davis for governor. “I’m going to try to give them some support--[whether they] win or lose.

“And hopefully take a moment to celebrate, myself.”

Soapbox Derby

For Los Angeles City Councilman Hal Bernson, enough is enough.

Bernson is tired of the long-winded diatribes of City Council gadflies, those inveterate City Hall-watchers who seem to spend all their free time hovering around council meetings.

L.A., though a city of 3.5 million people, has but a few of the type: just two or three people, retirees mostly, who regularly take the podium to berate the mayor, council members and bureaucrats on whatever happens to be the issue of the day.

The duke of gadflies is Leonard Shapiro, a Granada Hills resident and Watts Times columnist whose harangues are always delivered in the same, ear-splitting tone, as if he doesn’t believe the microphone is turned on.

Shapiro is often the only voice of the people aired at L.A. City Council meetings, which are more sparsely attended than those of many small towns.

His speeches have a ritualistic cast. Nearly always, council members chat or refill their coffee as Shapiro waxes indignant. Frequently, he can be observed arguing to an audience of empty seats, both before and behind him.

So it has been for a long time. But in recent weeks, Shapiro has gotten under Bernson’s skin. The northwest San Fernando Valley councilman reached the breaking point recently when Shapiro lashed out against Valley car dealer, philanthropist and police commissioner Bert Boeckmann.

“Our meetings are really delayed by people just getting up there to rail,” Bernson said. “I’m not trying to restrict anyone from speaking on legitimate things, but when someone comes up and fills out a card to speak on every subject just to hear themselves talk, well, that’s not good.”

Bernson said other government entities limit the time and frequency of public comments, and wants L.A. to do the same. All odds, though, are against Shapiro letting such a change pass without protest. Stay tuned.

Triple Threat

Eastside lawmakers, furious over the MTA’s decision to shelve plans for a subway extension in their districts, have gotten plenty of ink in recent weeks. Now it’s time to hear from the Valley’s pols.

At a news conference this morning, three Valley representatives are expected to back an initiative to cut off funding for the subway construction after the North Hollywood extension is completed.

In an unusual show of bipartisan support among the oft-fractional Valley delegation, Reps. Howard Berman (D-Mission Hills), Howard P. “Buck” McKeon (R-Santa Clarita) and Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks) will talk up the initiative and ponder the future of bus service and other transit issues in the Valley, aides say.

That will position them in direct conflict with Eastside activists and lawmakers such as city councilman and MTA board member Richard Alatorre, who has denounced the initiative by County Supervisor Yaroslavsky.

It’s clear someone’s going to get run over. The news conference is being held at an appropriate venue--a construction site for the Red Line.