Strong Field Lines Up to Represent Affluent Area

As home to many of Los Angeles’ most affluent neighborhoods and vibrant cultural institutions, the 5th Council District has lived up to its reputation for political activism by producing the largest field of candidates running for any council seat in the April 10 election.

Voters in the district, which extends from Westwood through Bel-Air to Van Nuys, will pick from among 11 candidates--twice the average for other council seats--including former state Sen. Tom Hayden, whose colorful and controversial past has focused a bright spotlight on the contest.

“It’s a race to see who gets into a runoff with Hayden, and then it will be a free-for-all,” said County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, who represented the council district for years. If no one gets a majority, the two top vote-getters will run head to head in June to determine the winner.

About 62% of the district’s voters live south of Mulholland Drive. No San Fernando Valley resident has ever been elected in the district.

With incumbent Mike Feuer giving up the seat to run for city attorney, the race has attracted candidates with strong resumes, including former federal prosecutor Jack Weiss of West Los Angeles, who has raised by far the most money, $186,000, and Sherman Oaks businessman Ken Gerston, who has amassed $116,742, the second-largest war chest.

Other contenders are Sherman Oaks political consultant Jill Barad, Westwood homeowner activist Laura Lake, entertainment executive Steve Saltzman of West Los Angeles and former television journalist Robyn Ritter Simon of Beverlywood.

Rounding out the field are consumer protection attorney Nate Bernstein, who lives in the Pico-Robertson area, teacher Constantina Milonopoulos of Studio City, accountant Victor N. Viereck of Valley Village, and wholesale carpet salesman Joe Connolly, who lives in the Mid-Wilshire area.

“It’s a very competitive race,” said Feuer, who has not endorsed anyone. “There are a number of people who bring energy, enthusiasm and new ideas to the race.”

Hayden is the only candidate who has declined to accept public funding, which frees him from the city’s $330,000 spending limit.

The winner will represent a council district that is home to many of Los Angeles’ most recognizable institutions, including UCLA, popular shopping malls such as the Beverly Center and Sherman Oaks Galleria, and trendy stretches of Melrose Avenue and Ventura Boulevard. Mayor Richard Riordan lives in the 5th, where the median household income is $73,000 a year.

While many poorer council districts struggle to attract investment, the 5th has had too much of a good thing, many residents complain, with massive developments crammed into prime real estate in a way that has strained the capacity of city streets and services.

Half in Valley, Half in West L.A.

“The biggest issue is the horrendous overbuilding, which has created tremendous traffic problems,” said Diana Plotkin, president of the Beverly Wilshire Homeowners Assn.

Adding to the challenge, the district was drawn to straddle the Santa Monica Mountains, putting half in the San Fernando Valley and half in West Los Angeles--two areas with often divergent interests.

Indeed, the opposing pulls of the district are reflected in the candidates and their competing visions for it. The four Valley candidates focus on Valley concerns such as the aircraft noise around Van Nuys Airport, while the seven contenders from West Los Angeles tend to concentrate on their part of the district, where expansion of the Fairfax Farmer’s Market and development in Westwood Village are hot topics.

Turning to questions of citywide concern, the candidates are divided along different lines when it comes to matters such as the proposed breakup of the Los Angeles Unified School District, which is supported by Lake, Viereck and Gerston. Simon and Barad said they want to give reform a chance.

“If I don’t see real reform, it will be time to have smaller districts,” Barad said.

Hayden has supported legislation allowing the breakup to be put before the voters, but has said he prefers fundamental reform. Weiss and Saltzman said they could support the school breakup only if it helped solve the district’s problems, including the need to hire more credentialed teachers and meet a backlog of school construction.

“It would be more manageable if we had smaller districts,” Gerston said.

Added Lake: “I believe resources are being sucked up for administration that need to go into the classrooms.”

Hayden also prefers reform over breaking up the city, but supports the ongoing study over secession’s effects. Gerston, Weiss and Barad prefer to keep the city together. Saltzman, Milonopoulos and others are neutral.

Instead of breaking up the city, “the better, more efficient approach is meaningful neighborhood councils and boroughs in a single city,” Hayden said.

Indeed, there is widespread support among the candidates for the pending creation of a network of advisory neighborhood councils, though candidates also said the city needs to improve delivery of basic services to address the complaints of secessionists.

Agreement on Police Protection

Hayden, for instance, would double the pothole repair budget the first year, while Saltzman would seek to promote education and literacy by opening all city libraries seven days a week, 12 hours a day.

One service that all the candidates vow to improve is police protection--a mission they propose tackling in a variety of ways, from the ouster of the chief to the expansion of the force.

Connolly wants the department to field about 13,000 officers, up from about 9,100 today. Viereck echoes the call for expansion but says he would be satisfied with 10,000 officers. Bernstein goes a step further, proposing to add as many as 5,000 officers.

Connolly, meanwhile, would take aim at Police Chief Bernard C. Parks, while Lake proposes removing both Parks and his Fire Department counterpart, William Bamattre.

“Their troops are not on board with them, and we are suffering for it,” said Lake, who also promises a paramedic ambulance in every fire station.

While all of the candidates emphasize public safety and police reform, Hayden and Weiss are among those who vow to implement police reforms called for in a recently completed federal consent decree.

Hayden supports providing for a more independent and better-staffed inspector general to watch over the LAPD, while Weiss said his experience as a federal prosecutor would help him reduce police liability.

Simon, a former news anchorwoman for the NBC affiliate in Palm Springs, said one way to improve the Police Department is to hire more women officers.

“Women have a tendency to de-escalate confrontation through communication,” said Simon.

Milonopoulos is a teacher who founded the gun-control group Kids Voice L.A. Her priority is to enact more gun safety laws, including a ban on the sale of ammunition in Los Angeles.

With traffic congestion another bane to district residents, the candidates have proposed various ideas for getting people around the district better.

Lake called for extending the subway from the Wilshire station to Westwood, while Gerston supports construction of a subway from North Hollywood to Warner Center across the Valley floor. Viereck also wants to extend rail across the Valley, either in a trench or underground.

Simon would like to build pedestrian overpasses at the busy Wilshire-Westwood intersection. Weiss supports speed bumps to deter speeders and rapid transit to cut down on cars in areas such as the neighborhood around the Farmer’s Market.

In those areas and more, the candidates suggest a panoply of ideas for addressing the city’s ills. But some of their most spirited debates have arisen, not over the future, but rather over their pasts--and which of them best prepares the candidates for council service.

Weiss cites his six years as a federal prosecutor. Lake touts her work with Friends of Westwood, which she helped found, and with the National Council for Jewish Women of Los Angeles.

Gerston and Saltzman each promise to bring business experience to the post; in Saltzman’s case, it’s a background in the restaurant business and the experience of managing the music catalog of his grandfather, Arthur Freed, who wrote “Singing in the Rain.”

And Barad brings to the table significant political skills. She owns a political consulting business that has raised money for clients including former state Sen. David Roberti.

Credentials Are Controversial

Still, the experience battle, like much of the council campaign, revolves mainly around the controversial credentials of Hayden--whose past inspires deep loyalties and passionate critics.

By far the best known of the council candidates, Hayden has key endorsements from the Los Angeles County Democratic Party, the political arm of the County Federation of Labor, the Sierra Club and the National Organization for Women.

A leader of the student rights and antiwar movements of the 1960s, Hayden was the principal author of the Port Huron Statement, a defining work of that period. He was one of the “Chicago Seven,” protesters who were prosecuted for activities disrupting the 1968 Democratic National Convention.

And yet, Hayden said the council seat is a perfect fit for his longtime interest in local issues. As a state senator, Hayden has been an outspoken figure in reducing noise at Van Nuys Airport and in the reform of the LAPD.

“My work in the Senate was about local issues,” he said. “I may have a state and national reputation because of my background, but my home is important to me.”

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5th City Council District Candidates

The 5th District of the Los Angeles City Council includes parts of the Westside and the Valley. It is home to many of Los Angeles’ most affluent neighborhoods and vibrant cultural institutions.

Jill Barad: Sherman oaks political consultant

Nate Bernstein: Consumer protection attorney, lives in Pico-Robertson area

Joe Connolly: Wholesale carpet salesman, Mid-Wilshire resident

Ken Gerston: Sherman Oaks businessman

Tom Hayden: Former state senator

Laura Lake: Westwood homeowner activist

Constantina Milonopoulos: Teacher, Studio City resident

Steve Saltzman: Entertainment executive, lives in West os Angeles

Robyn Ritter Simon: Former television journalist, Beverlywood resident

Victor N. Viereck: Valley Village accountant

Jack Weiss: Former federal prosecutor, West Los Angeles resident