Padilla Gets Wake-Up Call to Vote in Council Chambers

Los Angeles City Councilman Alex Padilla was asleep at the switch Wednesday, forgetting to cast his vote during a hot City Council debate on hillside development.

Fortunately for the novice councilman, one of his lobbyist pals--Ben Reznik, a Valley attorney who was a prominent fund-raiser during Padilla’s campaign--gave him a shove.

“You meant to vote no!” Reznik hollered at Padilla after a motion to overturn a zoning decision allowing a giant ridge-top mansion to skirt city height limits had passed by one vote.

Reznik had more than a paternal interest in Padilla’s vote, as he was representing the Benedict Canyon property owner who sought the exemption from the hillside law, diet mogul Mark Hughes, the founder of Herbalife International.

Hughes was allowed to build a 45,000-square-foot structure larger than the White House to a height of 45 feet--9 feet above the maximum.

Padilla promptly snapped to attention, rising to call for a fresh vote.

“I did not get a chance to push my ‘no’ button before you closed the vote,” he told Council President John Ferraro. But fellow Valley Councilman Mike Feuer, who had narrowly won approval to reverse the zoning exemption, had no sympathy for the abashed Padilla.

“I urge a ‘no’ vote on reconsideration!” Feuer shouted over Ferraro’s objection that a revote was routine whenever a member missed a vote.

“We do this all the time,” Ferraro said mildly as several council members jumped to their feet. “But in this case it would change the [outcome of] the vote,” Feuer said, arguing that before the council could vote anew, Padilla would have to find 10 votes to get the council to reopen the issue--10 votes he did not have.

Ferraro allowed the revote to proceed. Padilla changed his vote, and, presto, the controversial exemption, which some members feared would set a dangerous precedent for hillside development, was approved. Those opposed to the exemption were left shaking their heads.

“Unbelievable,” Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg said. “Unbelievable.”

Others were more direct as they grumbled over Reznik’s timely intervention. “Damage control for Alex Padilla,” groused an aide to Feuer.

*

A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN: The city is close to settling a federal lawsuit brought last year by the West Valley Girls Softball League alleging girls are not given the same access to city sports fields as boys, according to sources close to the negotiations. The City Council is expected to vote on the deal next week.

A year ago, American Civil Liberties Union attorneys representing the league expanded the suit to include all girls citywide. By February, the city had launched a “Raise the Bar” program through its Department of Recreation and Parks to boost participation of girls in sports programs.

Attorneys for the girls said the program made great strides toward addressing claims raised in the lawsuit, but no agreement was reached on a central demand of the girls’ softball league: a permanent field of its own.

Sources said Wednesday that the proposed settlement includes rights to four softball fields at Hughes Middle School in Woodland Hills for the West Valley league. The league had previously rejected Hughes because the city initially proposed only a short-term lease.

The league argued girls deserved the same chance to create a top-notch field with all the amenities that boys leagues have enjoyed for years on city-owned fields.

*

VIP CAPERS: Remember the City Hall elevator reserved for the exclusive use of political heavyweights?

Well, after months of protest, the sign limiting the elevator to VIPs has been taken down.

But it’s not that the City Hall crowd has undergone a sudden egalitarian conversion. Rather, the signs came down as a security measure.

The removal followed a discussion of ways to improve security for city officials, and not as part of a plan to put the elevators back into public use, said David Paschal, an assistant general manager of the city General Services Department.

The idea, city officials said, is not to give criminals help in targeting high-level city officials.

Oh, and the elevators are still reserved for VIPs and can only be accessed with special cards not available to the hoi polloi.

“It’s adding insult on injury,” said Councilwoman Laura Chick, a critic of the special elevator. “It’s saying let’s maximize the chances if there is a terrorist that maybe they will be going after employees and the public instead of the elected officials and let’s have this anonymous reserved elevator.”

Chick said she will not be satisfied until the VIP elevator is put back into general use.

*

VALLEY SUMMIT: Does the San Fernando Valley need therapy?

Is it politically dysfunctional?

Those questions may be answered at a daylong summit today at Cal State Northridge. The summit will bring together Valley political leaders and activists in a kind of daylong therapy session designed to forge more cooperation on key issues facing the area as it nears the new millennium.

“The idea is to build greater opportunities for people to come together to solve vexing problems,” said Matt Cahn, director of the university’s Center for Southern California Studies.

Although the “Community Summit” may generate answers for the city as a whole, Cahn said most of those invited are from the Valley, so it will get a lot of attention.

Those scheduled to attend include council members Laura Chick, Mike Feuer and Alex Padilla, county Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky and Assemblywoman Sheila Kuehl (D-Santa Monica), as well as the heads of Valley community groups.

Cahn said he has heard the complaint that the Valley is dysfunctional, but he isn’t sure it’s accurate. And Chick, a Tarzana resident, believes the problem is not as bad as some contend.

“The Valley is a very big and very diverse area, and wherever you find a lot of people and a lot of different kinds of people, there are a lot of different kinds of opinions,” Chick said. “But for every example where there is disagreement, I can give you five or 10 where there is working together.”

She said one of the most graphic examples of the Valley coming together to solve problems was the response to the Northridge earthquake.

“More than anything, what the summit is about is emphasizing the importance of continuing to build on mutual self-interest,” Chick said.

*

Patrick McGreevy is a Times staff writer, and Sue Fox is a correspondent.