Landfill Opponents Plan to Dump Their Fury on Mayor

Still smarting after the Los Angeles City Council approved the expansion of Sunshine Canyon Landfill, Granada Hills opponents are turning to Mayor Richard Riordan.

But they are not all that hopeful that he will step in and veto the measure that could make Sunshine Canyon the recipient of as much as 5,000 tons of trash a day for 26 years.

Officially, Riordan is waiting for the council next week to give a second and final reading to the ordinance that puts the council’s action into law.

“We are still evaluating it,” said Jessica Copen, a spokeswoman for the mayor.

But Mary Edwards of the North Valley Coalition, the group that has fought the dump for years, noted that Riordan has already signaled his position. Earlier this year, Riordan approved a General Plan Amendment that made the expansion possible.

“He has supported this in the past,” Edwards said. “We are going to deluge him with calls and letters. But he seems to support it.”

So Edwards’ group also was shopping around Wednesday for an attorney to file a lawsuit challenging the expansion.

But Councilman Hal Bernson, who led the fight against Sunshine Canyon, has not yet given up.

Even though only eight votes are needed for passage, Bernson is continuing the fight in council. If he loses there again, Bernson also will press Riordan to veto the expansion, according to Ali Sar, a spokesman for the councilman.

“An appeal to the mayor for a veto is certainly a key consideration,” Sar said.

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THE BIG STICK: City Councilman Mike Feuer proved this week that he not only can write laws, he also can help enforce them.

Feuer wrote a law that bans alcohol and tobacco billboards from within 1,000 feet of homes, churches and schools.

Feuer was driving to City Hall when he spotted a billboard advertising beer on West Pico Boulevard near some homes.

“I was on my way to work,” Feuer recalls. “[The billboard] is looming over a residential neighborhood and it doesn’t belong there.”

Although the city has set up a hotline for complaints about illegal billboards that has drawn 15 calls, Feuer went directly to Building and Safety Department administrator Andrew Adelman. On Tuesday, Adelman reported that an inspector found the sign in violation and the owner was given an order to remove it by Nov. 1.

Feuer said he felt good about turning in the first billboard.

“This is a neighborhood where kids will be traversing the street, and the billboard is against the law,” he said.

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WHAT LENO HEARD: What better way to create a buzz for a political candidate than to drop a hint at the annual Jack Webb dinner, where the city’s movers and shakers gather to honor leaders who have supported the police.

That’s what happened last week. With Riordan, Jay Leno and others in the audience, television personality Kelly Lange teased the crowd at the Beverly Hilton by asking Deputy Dist. Atty. Lea Purwin D’Agostino “Should we make the announcement yet?”

D’Agostino, who for years has handled major cases in the Van Nuys courts, declined, but said afterward several people came up to her asking if she is running for mayor.

The prosecutor said the mayor’s race is too crowded already, but she is exploring a run for city attorney in the 2001 election.

“I’m looking at it very seriously,” D’Agostino said. “People have been encouraging me. Everyone seems to feel it’s time that office was run by someone with prosecutorial experience.”

D’Agostino has 22 years as a deputy district attorney, having handled high-profile prosecutions such as the Twilight Zone and Alphabet Bomber cases. She has also handled many of the career-criminal cases prosecuted in the San Fernando Valley.

However, D’Agostino would be up against some stiff competition. Councilman Feuer has already raised a large amount of money and wrapped up key endorsements in the race.

In addition, Deputy Mayor Rocky Delgadillo said Wednesday he is still considering whether to run for city attorney. Assemblyman Robert Hertzberg (D-Van Nuys) is also weighing a possible candidacy, but some observers expect him to run for assembly speaker instead.

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BETTER THAN NEVER: The day after Bernson blasted his colleagues for approving the landfill expansion, Council President John Ferraro extended an olive branch Wednesday, stopping the meeting to congratulate Bernson for completing 20 years as a member of the City Council.

“Hal, we want to congratulate you, or condemn you, whatever is necessary, for 20 years in the City Council,” Ferraro joked.

Responded Bernson, “It’s been a great 20 years working with some of my colleagues, although we don’t always agree on everything.”

The only problem with the ceremony was that Bernson actually completed his 20th year on the council in July.

Ferraro apologized for the four-month delay.

“That’s how fast we move in city government,” he quipped.

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THE NEW BOOT: City Atty. James Hahn, a candidate for mayor in 2001, has something to tell Valley residents perturbed about drug dealers terrorizing their apartment buildings: Calling the police might help in the short term, but if you really want to purge troublesome tenants, look to the city attorney’s office.

Under a new state law, Hahn now has the power to initiate evictions. During the past six months, Hahn will announce at a news conference today in Van Nuys, the Narcotics Eviction Team has ousted almost 200 drug dealers from their rented homes.

“It’s been doing real well,” said Shari Rosen, executive director of the Apartment Assn. of the San Fernando Valley / Ventura County. Under Hahn’s program, city prosecutors notify both the landlord and the problem tenant of drug violations. The city can then move to evict the tenant, without requiring the landlord or neighbors, who may feel threatened, to testify in court.

“Now [owners] have a way out without jeopardizing their tenants,” Rosen said. “When you’ve got a nice little old lady living down the hall from a drug dealer, she’s either going to move or lock herself in her apartment, but she’s not going to testify for you.”

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SERVICE ACE: Faced with threats of secession by the San Fernando Valley and San Pedro, Los Angeles city leaders have been tripping over themselves in the past year to open Constituent Service Centers in neighborhoods that are far from downtown.

The new centers--one of which is under construction in the West Valley, another planned for Van Nuys--have been springing up throughout the city almost as fast as Starbucks Coffee outlets.

The concept is simple: several city departments under one roof where residents can go to get multiple services without having to make the long drive downtown.

On Wednesday, the Los Angeles City Council agreed to develop a plan for opening even more Constituent Service Centers in areas that do not have easy access to city services.

The plan was proposed by City Councilman Alex Padilla of Pacoima, who said he would like a center to be opened in the East Valley.

“It’s a great concept,” Padilla told his colleagues. “When we talk about charter reform and the background of secession . . . we are in an area where people are demanding more and more local government, accessible government. I would lobby for one in my own district.”

McGreevy is a Times staff writer and Fox is a correspondent.