Sanchez’s Campaign Hire Decried

Alex Padilla blasted 7th District Los Angeles City Council rival Corinne Sanchez on Monday for hiring a campaign manager who was paid to help win city approval of a controversial oil pipeline through the northeast San Fernando Valley.

Helen Hernandez said she is still a paid consultant for Pacific Pipeline Inc. but denied any link between that work and her role as Sanchez’s campaign manager.

“I see that as very separate,” Hernandez said Monday. “I don’t know what that has to do with this.”

Over strong local objections, the pipeline was completed in February, carrying oil from fields in Kern County to refineries in El Segundo. The opposition was led by then-7th District Councilman Richard Alarcon--now a Sanchez backer--who called the project “environmental injustice.”

“To have a woman who promoted the pipeline, and was paid well to promote it, managing the campaign of a political candidate raises serious concern about that candidate--what her priorities may be, her true commitment to the community and her understanding of the community and its needs,” Padilla said after a public forum at Parker Center.

Hernandez said Pacific Pipeline hired her in 1997 to provide information on the project to the public.

“My whole focus was educating the public,” Hernandez said. “I feel the community has to have information to be able to make decisions.”

She refused to say how much she has been paid, saying only that the checks, including one received last month, are a “small retainer.”

Pacific Pipeline agreed to provide dozens of computers to area schools and youth centers. Hernandez said her primary role now is to ensure that the computer centers continue to operate without problems.

Sanchez, who heads the social service agency El Proyecto del Barrio, said she wasn’t clear about Hernandez’s role with Pacific Pipeline when she picked her to head her runoff campaign for the June 8 election.

“I opposed it,” Sanchez said of the pipeline project. “We were approached at El Proyecto, but we were opposed to it. We did not get involved in it.”

Sanchez said she has rejected contributions from Pacific Pipeline because she opposed the project “from the beginning.”

She said the hiring of Hernandez should not be seen as any wavering of her opposition to the pipeline.

“We can differ on some things and still have a lot of common ground,” Sanchez said.

Sanchez said she remains committed to protecting the 7th District from environmental hazards.

“I go back to my track record,” she said. “I’ve always spoken for protection of the environment.”

But Padilla said hiring Hernandez sends a mixed message and is a slap at residents who fought the pipeline.

“I live less than a mile away from the pipeline,” Padilla said. “The northeast Valley is overburdened when it comes to environmental and toxic hazards, whether it’s landfills or pipelines.”