5 Maybe-Mayoral Rivals to Join Chick at Fund-Raiser

It’s a challenge for politicians to think up a gimmick to attract people to fund-raisers in years when they are not up for election.

But City Councilwoman Laura Chick of Tarzana has come up with a clever idea that is sure to make her $500-per-person fund-raiser a hot ticket.

With a little bit of mischief, Chick has invited five of the people most talked about as likely contenders for the mayor’s race in 2001.

Chick, whose own name has been floated as a potential candidate, thought it would be fun to have as special guests City Atty. James Hahn, county Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, City Councilmen Mark Ridley-Thomas and Joel Wachs, and city Parks Commissioner Steve Soboroff.

All five have agreed to attend.

“With all of the speculation about who is going to run and the tossing around of names, I thought it would be fun to get the bunch of us together in one room at the same time,” Chick said.

Chick isn’t ruling out a run for mayor or city controller. The fund-raiser would not be a threat to mayoral candidates because it is for her political officeholder fund, used to communicate with her council constituents, and cannot be used for a campaign for mayor.

Yaroslavsky agrees that the event will be entertaining.

“Oh, my God! You mean we’re all going to be in the same room together,” he said, with mock horror. “‘It’s going to be worth the $500 to see this group together.”

Chick said she smartly chose to have the fund-raiser next week in the Hancock Park home of City Council President John Ferraro, who has refereed more than his share of political squabbles on the council floor.

“President Ferraro has always played that role in council,” Chick said. “He is the host, so if we need him for that, he’s there.”

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WORLD IS WATCHING: Members of the Valley’s large Iranian Jewish community distressed over the recent arrest of Jewish leaders in Iran have found an ally in Rep. Brad Sherman, who is pushing for the Clinton administration to condemn the action.

Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks) is co-sponsor of a resolution that calls on the United States and all governments that maintain diplomatic relations with Iran to urge the release of the prisoners.

The Iranian government arrested at least 13 Jewish leaders from the city of Shiraz on the eve of Passover, and disclosed two months later that they were accused of espionage on behalf of the United States and Israel--a crime punishable by death in Iran.

Expatriate Iranian Jews, many of whom came to live in Los Angeles following the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran, contend that the Jewish leaders committed no such offenses and are simply victims of state religious persecution. Five Jewish leaders have been executed in Iran on similar charges in the past five years.

Pooya Dayanim, an Encino attorney who co-founded the Committee for Religious Minority Rights in Iran, said leaders of the Iranian Jewish community were quiet at first, hoping that contacts through diplomatic channels would yield the release the prisoners.

But when it became clear that diplomacy was not working, Iranian Jews launched a massive letter-writing campaign to members of Congress. After “bombarding his office” with hundreds of letters from local constituents and organizations, Sherman responded, Dayanim said.

“We informed him about this issue, and he was very eager to help us,” Dayanim said. “There was some reluctance on the part of other members of Congress and the State Department. Brad was instrumental in helping us overcome that.

“This is a matter of grave concern,” he added. “A wholesale arrest of Jews in Iran has not happened in many years.”

Sherman’s resolution is co-sponsored by Rep. Ben Gilman (R-N.Y.), chairman of the House International Relations Committee, and Rep. Sam Gejdenson (D-Conn.), the committee’s ranking Democrat. The committee will make a decision on the resolution. Rep. Howard Berman (D-Mission Hills) has also been supportive of the effort, Dayanim said.

Sherman said, “It is critical that the United States and the international community put Iran on notice that the world is watching.

“The Iranian government will learn again and again that the Jewish leaders of Shiraz will not be forgotten.”

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Y2K PARTY TIME: In its continuing search for a San Fernando Valley location for the party of the century, the city Cultural Affairs Department is now zeroing in on Van Nuys Airport for its Millennium Celebration.

Al Nodal, the department general manager, said he has entered into talks with the city Airport Department on using the airfield to host up to 100,000 revelers on Dec. 31.

“We’re pretty much sold on that site,” Nodal said. “It’s centrally located, and we can have a lot of control of the site. It is fenced.”

Nodal said a decision may be announced in a week, but he also said that two months ago when he was “99%” sure the party would be held in either Woodley Avenue Park or Lake Balboa Park.

Those two sites are no longer under consideration, Nodal said this week.

One of the reasons is that Woodley and Balboa are both in the Sepulveda Basin flood plain, which the city has had to close in past heavy rains.

The other reason? “The Parks Department was really being restrictive about walking on the grass,” Nodal said.