Home Is Where the Heart Is, or at Least Within a Block

As he approaches his 28th birthday, Los Angeles City Councilman Alex Padilla is finally leaving the nest.

The city’s youngest council member recently bought his first house--just around the corner from the one he grew up in and still shares with his parents.

Padilla said it took him more than a year to find his two-bedroom house, a modest, sand-colored abode with hardwood floors, because there was so little turnover in his Pacoima neighborhood.

He even briefly considered moving to Sylmar--a popular choice, he explained, for some upwardly mobile Pacoima dwellers--but rejected the notion after talking with friends.

“I campaigned as being born and raised in Pacoima, and how would it look if I moved to Sylmar?” he asked. Eventually, he found a house on Judd Street, a block away from his family’s Mercer Street home.

The house recently was rehabilitated, Padilla said, but there’s still work to be done.

For one thing, the frontyard has no grass. Then there are the quality-of-life issues that every councilman holds dear: “We have to start up a Neighborhood Watch, and do some street lighting and resurfacing.”

Padilla declined to say how much he paid for the house, but his spokesman said it was “in the low six-figure range.” Other houses in the area sold recently for $140,000 to $170,000, according to real estate listings.

With his older sister living in nearby San Fernando and his younger brother away at college, Padilla is the last one to leave his close-knit home (though he too left for college before moving back in with his parents). So, how’s his mother taking the news?

“She’s happy I’m buying a house and not a Corvette or a motorcycle,” Padilla said.

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CONFLICTING ACCOUNTS: Citing the appearance of a conflict of interest, Laurette Healey has called on City Councilwoman Laura Chick to order the consultant on her rival campaign for city controller to either drop his work as a City Hall lobbyist or quit Chick’s campaign.

Healey, a Van Nuys businesswoman, cited the pending examination by the Los Angeles Ethics Commission of the widespread practice of lobbyists who double as political consultants for those they are attempting to influence.

The Times reported Sunday that two-thirds of the council members have, at one point or another, hired lobbyists to work on their campaigns.

Chick’s consultant, Steven Afriat, is one of the city’s top lobbyists, seeking the council’s favor for clients including House of Blues Concerts Inc., which is vying for the city’s lucrative Greek Theatre contract.

“It is even the perception of impropriety that we must guard against,” Healey said in a written statement, adding that Chick “should now call on him [Afriat] to cease all lobbying activities at City Hall or ask for his resignation.”

Chick, a Tarzana resident, declined comment.

“I refuse to let personal attacks become a factor in this election,” Chick said. “The voters deserve a campaign that discusses issues and qualifications--not negative, personal attacks.”

Noting that Healey is running against Chick with the endorsement of Mayor Richard Riordan, Afriat said he was picked by Riordan in 1995 to run the campaign for charter changes and again two years later to run the campaign for his slate of charter reform commission candidates.

“If Laurette Healey thinks it’s so terrible that I work on Laura’s campaign, what does she think of Dick Riordan hiring me for those other campaigns?” Afriat said.

Healey said that existing city ethics rules prohibit former city officials from lobbying the city for a year after they leave office, so she suggested a similar waiting period for paid political consultants who want to lobby the elected officials to whom they provide political counsel.

“Basic common sense calls for the establishment of reasonable and enforceable boundaries between the roles of trusted political advisor and corporate advocate,” Healey said.

Meanwhile, former state Sen. Tom Hayden, who is running for City Council, asked the Ethics Commission on Wednesday to ban, for one year after the employment relationship ends, political consultants from lobbying the city officials they advised.

Hayden said he introduced similar legislation at the state level in 1997, but it was not approved.

“The local level is the place to end this local abuse, and the City Ethics Commission was created to tackle the issues that make politicians uncomfortable,” said Hayden, one of 11 candidates competing for the 5th District council seat.

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DWINDLING FIELD: And then there were 20.

The process for qualifying to be on the April 10 ballot is complete for four Los Angeles City Council seats representing the San Fernando Valley, with just a few early candidates dropping out.

In the 5th District, being vacated by Mike Feuer for a run for city attorney, all 11 candidates who announced plans to run have been certified by the city clerk for the ballot after turning in at least 500 signatures on nominating petitions.

In the 3rd Council District, the field was cut from eight to six when community activist Glenn Bailey did not turn in nominating petitions and copy editor Michael McGarr’s petitions were determined inadequate by the clerk.

Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski will face just one opponent in her reelection campaign for the 11th Council District after Internet businessman Eli Shtrum failed to turn in nominating petitions.

Padilla is unopposed in seeking reelection for the 7th Council District seat.

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PARTY NOD: Running in a southwest San Fernando Valley City Council district that is heavily Democratic, longtime activist Judith Hirshberg believes her candidacy will benefit from a sweep of party endorsements completed this week when she won the backing of the Los Angeles County Democratic Party.

Although the race for the 3rd District seat is nonpartisan, Hirshberg worked hard for all of the party endorsements, which also include the backing of the Democratic Party of the San Fernando Valley and Action Democrats of the Valley.

An Encino resident and former aide to retired Councilman Marvin Braude, Hirshberg faces a competitive field of five other candidates in the race.

“These endorsements are huge,” said Larry Levine, a political consultant for Hirshberg. “This is a district that consistently votes for Democrats, even for nonpartisan office.”