Publicity Is Near-Miss for Sponsor of Body-Armor Law

Any politician worth his shiny wingtips and dark blue suits dreams of that magical moment when the planets come into alignment and the tough-on-crime law he wrote snares him the mother lode of publicity.

Thanks to a bad-boy rapper with one of the lengthiest rap sheets in the business, Assemblyman Scott Wildman (D-Burbank) came close to that elusive jackpot last week.

But close is as far as he got--and he said that’s fine by him, as long as the fruits of his labor get notice.

Los Angeles police stopped a man in Hollywood for a traffic violation Feb. 16, noticed he was wearing a bullet-resistant vest, and promptly arrested him.

Is that a crime nowadays? In California, the answer is yes for anyone with a prior felony conviction, thanks to a “body armor possession” law written by Wildman to protect police from well-equipped thugs after the infamous North Hollywood shootout.

Police believed the arrest was the first since the law went into effect last month, so it probably should have gotten Wildman a little recognition anyway.

But the man caught in protective garb wasn’t just any old felon--he was Ol’ Dirty Bastard, the perennially troubled superstar rapper of the Wu-Tang Clan, a multi-platinum-selling rap group.

The arrest of ODB, whose real name is Russell Jones, made newspapers around the country and was featured on MTV news--much to the delight of police looking for a way to get the word out about the body-armor law.

“They were quite pleased,” Wildman said of the LAPD. “It’s ironic that [the first arrest] is a person with such a negative history of dealing with police officers.”

No stranger to the legal system, ODB has previously faced allegations that he fired at police, threatened to kill his ex-girlfriend, shoplifted a pair of sneakers and failed to pay child support. He is suing New York police over the shooting allegations, which a grand jury found too weak to pursue in court earlier this month after ODB had spent a week in jail.

Yet the crush of news articles on the ODB arrest failed to make the connection between the law and the politician who fathered it. Wildman’s office later tried to get a piece of the action, issuing a news release trumpeting the fact that the arrest was the first under “Wildman’s Body Armor Law.”

But alas, the recognition never came. That’s OK, Wildman insists, as long as his law gets its moment in the spotlight.

“I’m not disappointed. I don’t really care where the credit goes,” he said. “The issue is the law, and this high-profile arrest should lead to more awareness of the fact that convicted felons can’t go around wearing body armor in California anymore.”

ODB has probably learned that lesson. As a result of his latest brush with the law, the 30-year-old emcee--best known to rap uninitiates for rushing the stage at last year’s Grammys after Wu-Tang Clan was passed over for honors--now faces up to three years in prison.

His New York attorney, Peter Frankel, did not return calls for comment.

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JOIE DE VIVRE, L.A. STYLE: It’s the little things that count.

The great and ponderous issues like charter reform and Valley secession may grab headlines, but after nearly four years in office, Councilman Mike Feuer has concluded that what his constituents really care about is getting potholes fixed and trees planted.

To that end, Feuer has called for a series of hearings on quality of life, aiming to bring residents the smoothly paved streets lined with neatly trimmed trees that they deserve.

“When it comes right down to it, what our constituents need most from us are improvements in their day-to-day quality of life,” said Feuer, who represents Sherman Oaks, Studio City and parts of Van Nuys. “I think we can’t afford to do business as usual in this city.”

Business as usual, after all, can so often mean deferred maintenance. And putting off repairs can mean expensive lawsuits--the city paid more than $22 million last year for damage caused by ill-kept sidewalks, roads and the like--not to mention a generally depressed joie de vivre.

Feuer introduced a motion this week directing two council committees--Public Works and Budget and Finance--to hold joint hearings on street resurfacing, sidewalk and pothole repair, and tree planting and maintenance.

“These issues may not be as visible in the news,” Feuer acknowledged, “but I’m telling you, in neighborhood after neighborhood, the constituents I serve care most about making sure the basic city services are performing well.”

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THE UNTHINKABLE: Valley secessionists, or advocates of “Valley independence,” as they prefer to call themselves, remain fully optimistic that they have collected enough signatures to move on to the next level in their quest to break up Los Angeles.

But after a random sampling of their 202,000 signatures found a big fat stack of duplicates, secession group Valley VOTE is preparing for the possibility that they will have to gather more John Hancocks to launch a secession study, the next stage in the process.

For the secession movement to keep moving, Valley VOTE needs 131,700 signatures, or 25% of the Valley’s registered voters. Under the unusual laws governing secession, Valley VOTE will have an extra 15 days to collect more signatures if its initial attempt comes up short.

At a Monday gathering at Galpin Ford, the mega-dealership owned by key secession backer Bert Boeckmann, secessionists unveiled a contingency plan detailing how they will proceed if that’s their predicament.

First, the group will review the signatures ruled invalid by the county elections officials, hoping to ferret out a few good ones from the stack to narrow the gap.

Second, the group will launch a three-pronged attack to collect the signatures needed. They will send letters to 1,800 die-hard supporters, asking them to collect signatures from three registered voters and mail them back; send petitions to 20,000 people who signed but were not registered to vote, along with voter registration forms; and walk neighborhoods where a high number of people supported their first petition drive, hoping for a little more success to put them over the top.

Though secessionists are prepared for the worst, they still expect the best, said Valley VOTE President Jeff Brain.

“We fully expect to make it,” Brain said.

The verdict should be in early next month.

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SCORING SECESSION: This revelation may shock many readers, but when pressed for their stance on controversial topics, politicians are known to hedge a little.

After years of trying to get a feel for the political winds around town, Valley secessionists have learned this lesson as well as anyone.

So in hopes of getting some straight answers out of the candidates for the vacant City Council seat to represent the northeast Valley, the secessionists have developed a tool to fight Clintonesque political sophistry: check a box, please.

Valley VOTE plans to poll all candidates for the council seat with simple direct questions designed to get clear commitments from people who sometimes prefer to straddle the fence until one side looks better than the other. The political hopefuls will then have a chance to elaborate, but not until they have taken a stand of some kind.

“If you don’t do that, people are going to put down these unclear answers,” said Valley VOTE Chairman Richard Close. “It’s something we have to do.”

Valley VOTE plans to use the polls to compile a secession “report card,” which will then be distributed at coffee klatches around the northeast Valley during the election.

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ALL PUFFED UP: Some of the better known City Council candidates have complained about what they said are inaccurate and exaggerated occupations claimed by competitors.

“I think people sometimes embellish what they do,” said Rick Taylor, a campaign manager for 7th District candidate Alex Padilla.

Raul Godinez II, an engineer for the city and another 7th District candidate, objected that the city clerk told him he could not list himself as the former mayor of San Fernando, but allowed other candidates to list their former occupations.

“Probably I’m the only one who was honest about their occupation,” Godinez said. “I’d just say, ‘Voter beware!’ ”

In particular, Godinez questioned 7th District candidate Barbara Perkins’ listing of her occupation as “community college executive.”

Perkins had a temporary contract that ran from October to January to help the Mission College president organize community outreach for the proposed college expansion.

Perkins defended the designation, saying she was a college executive before she quit to become a full-time candidate.

“In fact I held a position there,” she said.

Before she received the Mission College contract, she ran a consulting firm helping women train for board appointments, and before that she was a flight attendant for 17 years.

Godinez said voters may be misled into believing from the ballot that Perkins is currently a college executive, which he feels is unfair given the city clerk’s refusal to allow him to list himself as a former mayor.

Instead, he is listed only as a registered professional engineer.

Perkins is not the only one listing former occupations. Tony Lopez resigned more than a month ago from his position as a district director of the Boy Scouts of America in order to become a candidate because, he said, the organization doesn’t provide leaves of absences. Still, the April 11 ballot will state that he is a youth services director.

He said he has established a career as a youth services director, working for six years for the Boy Scouts.

Padilla is on a leave of absence from the office of Assemblyman Tony Cardenas, but he will be on the ballot as a state Assembly deputy.

Taylor said he is amused when candidates put down occupations like “community activist,” or “civil rights leader” that can be appealing to voters but are not necessarily backed up by real jobs.

Deputy City Clerk Kris Heffron said candidates can list any occupation held in the previous 12 months, and her office does not check to see how current or accurate the designation is.

“We are not required to verify what they say is accurate,” Heffron said.

As for Godinez, she said there is a rule that people cannot use the word “former” as in “former mayor.”