Marital Bliss Survives the Rigors of City Hall Battles

When Los Angeles City Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski publicly blasted the Community Redevelopment Agency on Wednesday for failing to adopt ethics rules, some observers at the council meeting found it peculiar.

After all, Miscikowski’s husband, Doug Ring, serves on the agency board of commissioners.

Miscikowski, whose district extends from Van Nuys to West Los Angeles, did not criticize her husband by name but joined other council members in offering strong words of rebuke because the agency has not adopted an ethics ordinance approved by voters 10 years ago for other city departments.

“I share the frustration, the outrage, really, that it has taken this long,” Miscikowski told her colleagues. “This is a no-brainer.”

Miscikowski and the rest of the council adopted a motion requesting the board “in the strongest possible terms to immediately adopt” the ethics ordinance.

CRA administrator Jerry Scharlin told the council he hopes to submit an ethics ordinance next month.

Ring, who was appointed by Mayor Richard Riordan a year ago, said the issue came to his attention a month ago, and he has taken no action because of the holidays.

He was unfazed by his wife’s criticism.

“If she criticized me directly or indirectly, I can live with that,” Ring said. “I’ve criticized her publicly before.”

*

CHANGE OF HEART? In 1999, Tom Hayden considered a run in the 41st Assembly District, only to decide to run in the 42nd Assembly District, and then to drop out of that race as well.

Hayden, a former state senator, recently rented a home in Sherman Oaks and declared plans to run for the 5th District seat on the Los Angeles City Council.

But the recent death of Rep. Julian Dixon (D-Los Angeles) has some commentators, including the respected political tip sheet Calpeek, speculating that Hayden may switch his focus to the congressional seat.

Although Hayden said he remained focused on the council, he refused to rule out a run for Congress.

“With the new president, it seems to me Democrats need the most progressive voice possible in Washington,” Hayden said.

One longtime friend of Hayden’s opined that it’s impossible to know which office he will run for until filing closes.

“Having known Tom for years, the only thing to expect is the unexpected,” the friend said.

*

UNDERSTANDING KEN: Valley businessman Ken Gerston, who is vying for the open 5th City Council District seat, is a man in constant motion. He squirms in his seat and repeatedly clears his throat as his right shoulder twitches and his legs bounce up and down.

His fidgeting is sometimes mistaken for jitters on the campaign trail, but Gerston in fact is a rarity in the political world: He has Tourette’s syndrome, a neurological disorder caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain that prompts involuntary motor and vocal tics.

“Stress exacerbates it, so when I’m speaking in front of a large group of people, it happens,” said Gerston, a 46-year-old jeweler and coin minter who lives in Sherman Oaks. “As I’m speaking out loud, there’s an inner voice inside me going, ‘Don’t tic, don’t tic, don’t do it.’ ”

First described by French physician Georges Gilles de la Tourette more than a century ago, the disorder is often sensationalized on television and in movies as the overwhelming urge to yell profanity--a symptom known as coprolalia. But most people with the syndrome have milder cases, experts say, with tics such as the rapid movements Gerston displays.

Some observers hope that Gerston’s foray into the high-exposure realm of city politics will broaden public understanding about the hereditary disorder. He is one of 10 candidates jockeying for the seat being vacated by Councilman Mike Feuer.

“I think it’s great,” said Jack Taulbee, president of the Southern California chapter of the Tourette Syndrome Assn. “The more that we make people aware of it, the less they’ll fear it.”

Gerston, who was not properly diagnosed until he was 35, doesn’t call much attention to his condition, other than by politely explaining it to the occasional politico who advises him to stop fiddling around so much when he’s on the podium. But he does counsel children who have Tourette’s syndrome. He knows firsthand the pain of being picked last for teams in gym class.

“Tourette’s is a real difficult thing to overcome,” said Gerston, the former president of the Mid Valley Chamber of Commerce. “I was scared to death that people would look at the twitches as some inadequacy.”

Others with Tourette’s syndrome include former baseball player Jim Eisenreich, NBA guard Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf and jazz pianist Michael Wolff, whose experiences partly inspired the recent film, “The Tic Code.” Symptoms generally surface during childhood, but by adulthood many people learn ways to try to conceal their tics--for example, someone might mask an uncontrollable urge to touch his head by pretending to run his fingers through his hair.

“Everybody’s got a problem you hide somewhere. Ours is just more public,” Taulbee said. “Just because we have a few extra moves doesn’t mean we’re weird.”

*

TOUGH AUDIENCE: When Adam Schiff of Burbank was sworn in as the new congressman from the 27th District on Wednesday, both his wife, Eve, and his daughter, Alexa, had to watch from the gallery.

Spouses of members are not allowed on the House floor, but children are, and Schiff hoped to have his 3-year-old daughter by his side when he took the oath.

It was not to be.

As anyone who has watched C-SPAN knows, House proceedings can be lengthy and dry.

“They were doing a roll call, and by the time they got to C, his daughter was cranky and went back to her mother,” said Paul Hubler, a spokesman for Schiff.