City New Year’s Bash to Be a No-Host Party

What would Martha Stewart say?

You’re invited to a New Year’s Eve party, but the hosts are nowhere to be found during most of the event, including the climactic moment at midnight?

Well, that’s what will happen with the city’s political leadership and the millennial celebration hosted by the city at Van Nuys Airport.

Sure, the mayor will make a half-hour appearance in the afternoon to join a parade of 2,000 line dancers, but then he will be off to other parts of the city, spending midnight at a ceremony to light the Hollywood sign.

And come the stroke of 12, none of the San Fernando Valley’s representatives on the Los Angeles City Council, including five who represent parts of Van Nuys, are planning to be at the laser and fireworks extravaganza in Van Nuys.

This is the same council that approved $1 million for the Van Nuys celebration and four others elsewhere in the city.

Councilman Joel Wachs said he plans to make an appearance at Van Nuys during the day but will not be at the airfield at midnight.

Councilman Alex Padilla would like to be in Van Nuys but has not been able to commit to being there, an aide said. Because he will be on call for possible Y2K problems, Padilla will probably be somewhere near the city’s downtown emergency operations center, an aide said.

Councilman Mike Feuer plans to attend a party at Paramount Studios with the governor and mayor. Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski will be celebrating in Washington, D.C.

Councilman Hal Bernson will be out of town, though aides would not say where. Councilwoman Laura Chick plans to see in the new year with family, but not at Van Nuys Airport. And council President John Ferraro also has no plans to be on the tarmac in Van Nuys with the thousands of other revelers expected when the clock strikes 12.

“It’s a little surprising, considering it is a city function,” said Robert Lamishaw, president of the Mid Valley Chamber of Commerce in Van Nuys. “I would think local council people would be there. It’s a little disappointing.”

Are they too good to stand elbow-to-elbow with the average Vals to welcome in the new century? Or are they just doing what a lot of Valley leaders are doing, avoiding the crush?

Don Schultz, president of the Van Nuys Homeowners Assn., doesn’t blame the politicians at all for passing up the party at Van Nuys Airport. He won’t be there at midnight either.

“Frankly it is safer, for old folks like me, to be at home,” Schultz said. “If most of us in the community were going to be there, I would probably be concerned that the elected officials won’t be there. But I haven’t talked to anyone here who is going.”

*

BY ANY OTHER NAME: S. David Freeman heads one of the largest public utilities in the country, overseeing a network of water delivery systems and power plants, but you wouldn’t know that by a proposal on the March ballot.

Freeman is general manager of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, an agency that for years was criticized for taking water from the Owens Valley, wreaking environmental damage.

He also will be on the ballot for the 41st District seat in the state Assembly.

Freeman’s proposed designation on the ballot: “natural resources manager.”

“What is that?” asked opponent Jayne Murphy Shapiro of Encino. “He manages my resources? I think it’s misleading.”

But smart, too, perhaps?

Shapiro acknowledged that voters in the Assembly district that stretches from Santa Monica to Agoura Hills are very environmentally conscious. Being known as a “natural resources manager,” a title that almost sounds like it could be a forest ranger, is likely to go over better with many voters than the title of public utilities administrator.

Susan Cox, a spokeswoman for the Freeman campaign, said the designation gives voters a better idea of who Freeman is, but noted it still must pass muster during a review period that ends today.

The DWP head did oversee this year’s signing of an agreement to begin the recovery of Owens Lake.

“We played with a few names,” Cox said. “David Freeman has a long history of working with natural resources and environmental issues. The title ‘utility executive’ doesn’t give the full impression of what he has done.”

*

NEVER FEAR: State law is pretty strict about requiring cities to consider all negative impacts of major construction projects, but a report by the city of Los Angeles on creating a redevelopment project in the northeast Valley may have reached new heights of analysis.

“Implementation of the proposed project would not result or expose people to . . . tsunami hazards,” the city-commissioned environmental study concluded.

In other words, the Community Redevelopment Agency has been blamed for many terrible things, but one thing it can’t be blamed for is if a tidal wave hits Pacoima.

Understandable, since the northeast Valley is 20 miles from the Pacific Ocean.

Apparently the project also will not bring any mad scientists bent on controlling the climate to Sylmar.

The city study asserts the redevelopment plan includes nothing that would affect the Valley’s temperature or rain levels. Amazing.

But that isn’t all.

The redevelopment plan would not expose people to volcanic activity either, the city study said, concluding: “The nearest known volcanoes are several hundred miles away from the proposed project area.”

Whew! It wouldn’t do to have lava flowing down Van Nuys Boulevard.