For City Politicians, What’s Old Is New

City politicians have taken heat in the past for not doing enough to recycle cans and paper, but they demonstrated this week that they are more than adept at recycling another commodity--ideas.

Every election year, city officials running for office drag out the same old ideas used in previous elections, dust them off and present them to voters as new initiatives.

Mayor Richard Riordan won election promising to reform the city’s business tax system to make it more fair and efficient, but most of his proposals have yet to be enacted.

On Wednesday, City Councilman Mike Feuer, who is running for city attorney, unveiled a package of business tax reforms to make the system “more friendly, fair and efficient.”

Feuer’s proposals, which include an end to double taxation and creating a business tax ombudsman, overlap proposals that have been under consideration for more than two years by a committee appointed by the mayor and council members.

The councilman, whose district includes parts of Sherman Oaks and Van Nuys, introduced five separate motions Wednesday containing proposals to reform the business tax system.

Councilwoman Laura Chick, who is running for city controller, did a little bit of recycling of her own Wednesday. She persuaded the council to create a task force to report on ways to better collect millions of dollars of taxes and fees owed to the city.

As chair of the council’s Government Efficiency Committee, Chick said the city has a responsibility to improve.

City Councilman Joel Wachs, a candidate for mayor, was skeptical.

He should know. Wachs chaired the Government Efficiency Committee before Chick and he told the council Wednesday he has seen the same proposal to reform collections made over and over again.

“This has been an issue over the years that has been repeatedly before us as to how to increase our collections,” Wachs said. “This is not the first time we have asked for this. This is not the first time they have reported back to us and nothing has really fundamentally changed.”

PARTY CENTRAL: Hoping to bring a little Hollywood glitter to his lagging campaign for Congress, actor Jerry Doyle enlisted some of his thespian friends this week for a campaign fund-raiser at the Hilton Woodland Hills.

Doyle, who portrayed security chief Michael Garibaldi on the science fiction television series “Babylon 5,” was joined at the fund-raiser by entertainment figures including his co-star in the series, Tracy Scoggins, as well as Melissa Gilbert, who starred in “Little House on the Prairie.”

Doyle said he hoped the celebrity appeal might create new interest in his campaign to unseat Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks), but he also said the Tuesday fund-raiser was designed to be fun.

“I want to put the ‘party’ back in the Republican Party,” he said.

Perhaps the biggest celebrity backing Doyle, and the one he is counting on most, has never had a television show of his own, but will be seen on television dozens of times between now and Nov. 7 urging people to vote for Doyle.

U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the former presidential candidate and a hero to many in the party, addressed the Doyle fund-raiser by telephone and is featured in a television commercial that the Doyle campaign is showing on cable television stations in the district.

“Jerry Doyle will fight to fix our schools, reform Social Security and clean up our political process,” McCain said.

Meanwhile, Sherman is stuck in Washington where Congress is still battling over the budget, and has had to cancel several campaign events in the district, including a birthday bash tonight.

“Congress is being held hostage by the Republican leadership and you can’t make plans when you are held hostage,” Sherman said.

Sherman is not optimistic about having a lot of time in the district before the election. In fact, he recently obtained an absentee ballot, just in case Congress is still deadlocked on election day. “Ordinarily, I like to vote in person. It’s a nice tradition,” Sherman said.

YOUR RIGHT TO KNOW: A day after the Los Angeles Ethics Commission called on the agency studying San Fernando Valley cityhood to adopt tough financial disclosures for breakup backers, the Local Agency Formation Commission tentatively agreed Wednesday to hold a hearing on the issue in January.

County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, also a member of LAFCO, pushed for a hearing, saying it only makes sense to require public disclosure of who is bankrolling efforts to break up the city.

“It’s a no-brainer,” Yaroslavsky told the other commissioners. “It’s in the public interest to know who is backing what around here.”

Even so, settling the issue is likely going to be difficult. Some of the LAFCO members signaled resistance Wednesday to requiring the identification of people backing cityhood proposals for fear they would be retaliated against by those in power in Los Angeles.

TRYING HARDER: Juan Carlos Ros would like to send a message to independent-minded voters: Don’t overlook the Libertarian Party.

“It takes a commitment to jump from one party to the next,” said the 32-year-old executive director for the party’s state headquarters. “We want to play ball with the Democrats and the Republicans.”

A Tarzana resident, Ros is running against Sherman and Doyle for the 24th Congressional District. He has high hopes for Libertarians in California.

In May, the Miami native, who was born to Cuban immigrants, moved the state headquarters from Northern California to Panorama City, partly to take advantage of the region’s media-saturated opportunities.

As of September, 91,472 Libertarians were registered in the state. And Los Angeles County, Ros said, has more than any other county in the state (20,135), followed by San Diego County (11,252).

Ros, 32, is among the more than 300 Libertarian candidates in California running for local, state and national seats.

Like Doyle, Ros also has show-biz roots. He worked eight years as a production assistant, including stints for the films “Cape Fear” and “JFK.” But he left entertainment behind in 1996 when he threw himself into the Libertarian Party.

“It’s like a start-up company,” Ros said. “We want to grow the party so that it is too large to ignore.”

SHOW AND SMELL: As head of the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Assn., Richard Close is typically fighting for the residents’ right to receive adequate city services. Around City Hall, his group holds sway with several lawmakers, who know they have a watchful eye over their legislating.

But this Saturday, the association will be getting a particularly up-close and personal tour of the city’s fine services.

Dubbed the “Glitz & Goo Tour,” members of Close’s organization will get a guided visit of Red Line subway station art in Hollywood and downtown.

But it’s the “goo” portion of the event that is the real stinker.

The $15 event ticket includes a visit to the Hyperion Water Treatment Plant in Playa del Rey. (Water treatment, for the uninitiated, is the polite euphemism for “sewage.”)

“You cannot take sewage treatment plants for granted,” Close said. “People grouse about the sewer fee that is part of your DWP bill every two months. It’s a sizable amount, but people have no conception whatsoever about why there is a need for conservation and why the fee is needed.”

Valley visitors, Close guarantees, “will have their eyes and noses opened by this experience.”

And lest this column spill the beans: “They don’t know it yet, but they will have lunch there as well,” Close said, chuckling.

CITY HALL SPHINX: Riordan was last week given a chance to shake up the race for mayor, but went for a laugh instead.

Appearing on the KCET-TV show “Life and Times,” Riordan was asked who he would endorse to succeed him if his current favorite, Steve Soboroff, doesn’t make it past the primary election.

Riordan paused a beat for effect and said, “Melrose Larry Green.”

Green is a flamboyant gadfly and perennial candidate known for costumes, street dancing and picketing O.J. Simpson. He also has appeared often on the Howard Stern Radio Show. In 1993, Green ran for mayor with a campaign that largely consisted of standing on street corners in Hollywood waving large, hand-printed signs.

He finished 16th.

Which is perhaps why Riordan offered Green’s name when asked who he would endorse if Soboroff doesn’t make the runoff.

Riordan is too clever to give away the real answer.

Still, other leading candidates for mayor took Riordan’s joke in stride.

Responded Wachs, “Melrose Larry Green has endorsed me!”