Valley’s Clout on City Panels Peaks With Secession Drive

At a time when some San Fernando Valley activists are pushing to break away from Los Angeles, other Valley leaders have moved into key leadership positions on important citywide commissions.

Valley residents now preside over the Harbor, Library, Zoning Appeals, Housing, Fire, Civil Service, Animal Regulation, Cultural Heritage, Public Works, and Building and Safety commissions.

Is it a coincidence that so many leadership positions are going to Valley residents while secession is threatened?

Valley VOTE leaders don’t think so.

“I think the leadership of the city as a whole has, because of the threat of secession, been made to recognize the concerns of the Valley, one of which was about being represented on city commissions,” said Jeff Brain, president of Valley VOTE, the most visible group pushing secession. “I think [more Valley leaders of commissions] is a result.”

Enough Valley residents have been elected to head city commissions in recent weeks to create a buzz in and out of City Hall. In some cases, Valley residents head panels.

The officers include:

* Encino attorney Lee Alpert, elected to take over as president of the Building and Safety Commission from Westsider Joyce Foster.

* Studio City businessman Marvin Selter, elected president of the city Board of Zoning Appeals, replacing non-Valley resident Christopher Pak.

* Lobbyist Al Avila of Sylmar, named acting president of the Animal Regulation Commission last month.

* Studio City attorney David Fleming, elected to replace non-Valley resident Michael Yamaki as president of the Fire Commission; and Valley Realtor Mel Wilson, elected vice president of the panel.

* Sharon Schuster of Woodland Hills, formerly an aide to former Councilwoman Joy Picus, reelected president of the Civil Service Commission.

* Ellen Stein of Encino, elected to another term as president of the Public Works Board.

* Encino attorney Ted Stein, Ellen’s husband, elected president of the Harbor Commission.

* Lucy McCoy, an Encino political consultant, reelected president of the Library Commission.

* Catherine Schick of Studio City, reelected president of the Cultural Heritage Commission; and Valerie Aronson of Encino, elected vice president of the panel.

* Rockwell Ames, a Van Nuys resident and former deputy mayor for Sam Yorty, reelected president of the Affordable Housing Commission.

The reelections and the ascent of Alpert, Selter, Avila and Fleming have some Valley civic leaders marveling at the growing clout of the Valley at City Hall.

Ames said he does not recall a time when so many Valley residents headed so many city commissions. He thinks the development is a good one.

“The Valley has needed a lot of work,” Ames said.

Fleming, recently handpicked by Riordan to serve as Fire Commission president, a post he held a few years back, agrees that the recent commission elections were positive for the Valley.

“The Valley gets the benefit of having a significant number of leaders on city commissions, of having a direct line for people in the Valley into city government,” Fleming said.

Theoretically, each commission elects its own officers, but Riordan often lets his appointees know whom he wants to serve as president.

A financial supporter of the secession study, Fleming said he does not believe the threat of Valley cityhood is the main reason so many Valley residents have been put in leadership positions.

Instead, Fleming said the change is the natural outcome of Riordan’s decision after his election in 1993 to put more Valley residents on city commissions. With seniority, more Valley residents have been able to rise to the presidencies.

“I don’t think [secession] is the driving force,” Fleming said. “But he [Riordan] clearly has recognized the fact that the city had to reach out to the Valley and bring people into City Hall”

The Valley’s significant role in city politics, whether threatening secession or not, has played a big role in Riordan’s commitment to address historic complaints that the Valley was underrepresented on city panels, Fleming said.

“The mayor has always recognized that,” Fleming said. “He wouldn’t be mayor without the Valley. You take away the Valley’s voters and Mike Woo [Riordan’s chief opponent in 1993] would be mayor.”

PROMISES, PROMISES: Just two months after taking office, Los Angeles City Councilman Alex Padilla of Pacoima is already catching flak for allegedly breaking a campaign promise.

Members of the Sun Valley Chamber of Commerce say that Padilla promised them at a general membership meeting in March that he would maintain a council field office in the chamber’s building in Sun Valley. The chamber officials said Padilla reconfirmed his pledge during a July 4 event at Hansen Dam.

Based on that promise, the chamber fixed up the field office to make Padilla feel welcome, even installing new carpet.

On Tuesday, Padilla closed his Sun Valley office, moving all the staff to his field office in Pacoima while he prepares to open a new Sun Valley field office elsewhere.

“It’s very disappointing that he has decided to move out after he promised he would stay,” said Doris Jacobs, executive director of the chamber. “It’s a big, big loss to the community.”

Jacobs said the decision five years ago of Padilla’s predecessor, Richard Alarcon, to open a field office in the chamber building created a kind of “mini city hall” in Sun Valley. It housed an anti-graffiti program, the chamber and the council office, and provided a place for residents to meet with LAPD officers.

David Gershwin, a spokesman for Padilla, said the councilman will maintain a presence in Sun Valley.

Padilla is leasing a new building that is nine-tenths of a mile from the chamber building.

“The councilman felt that a larger, more modern facility will make it more accessible to constituents,” Gershwin said, adding that the new field office will be more centrally located for the area of the district it will serve.

Gershwin could not provide the address of the new field office, but said it will open in 30 to 60 days.

Padilla will also maintain offices in Pacoima and Sylmar, Gershwin said.

FIREFIGHTER: For Brook Colangelo, a 21-year-old aide in the Washington office of Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks), putting out fires typically means hunting down some obscure scrap of information for the boss, like, ASAP.

Stressful and important? Yes.

Heart-poundingly exciting? Uh, not quite.

So when the congressional Fire Caucus sent out a notice, looking for people to battle real-life blazes as volunteers for the U.S. Forest Service, Colangelo jumped at the chance.

Ron Howard won’t be casting him in any firefighting epics in the near future, but for 10 days last month, the George Washington University student was in the thick of the action.

He fought three forest fires, in Oregon, Washington and California. The latter was the Bridge Fire in San Gabriel Canyon just above Azusa, where he dug hot lines into the dirt and ignited a controlled burn with a 20-member team of so-called “hotshots.”

“It’s just one of those things I’ve always been interested in,” Colangelo said. “I think what hotshots do is just amazing.

“It’s a different kind of stress--long, physical days trekking up a mountain,” he added. “Here, it’s just immediate stress.”

Sherman wasted no time in praising his young charge.

“Brook wasn’t some suit from Washington watching others work hard,” Sherman said. “He was in the thick of the fight against these fires, protecting important land and resources.”

OFF AND RUNNING: In another sign that the 2001 Los Angeles mayor’s race may be the most expensive contest in city history, City Councilman Joel Wachs of Studio City on Wednesday became the third candidate to disclose reaching the $200,000 mark in fund-raising in a filing with the city Ethics Commission.

City Atty. James Hahn and Parks Commission President Steve Soboroff had previously reported hitting the $200,000 mark in fund-raising for the mayoral election that is still nearly two years away.

Wachs said the milestone means he is on target to raise $3 million for the contest.

“We have a tremendous broad base of support from the Valley, Westside and central city,” Wachs said, adding he has pledges of $1 million so far.

Staff writer Miguel Bustillo contributed to this story.