Valley Politicians Take the Initiative as Election Nears

In a sure sign that an election is nearing, San Fernando Valley politicians have been tripping over one another to float taxpayer-friendly initiatives.

Witness the clash this week between Los Angeles City Council members Laura Chick of Tarzana and Joel Wachs of Studio City.

Wachs, a candidate for mayor, approached Chick, a candidate for city controller, to second a motion he was introducing that called for a charter amendment to bar the use of taxpayers’ money for any Olympics held in Los Angeles.

The city is preparing to bid to host the games in 2012.

Chick reminded Wachs she had introduced a similar motion a month ago that called for a study of a possible charter amendment. In fact, that study, recommending a charter amendment, was released on the same day Wachs introduced his motion.

“It was redundant,” Chick recalled telling Wachs in declining to second his motion. “I’m pleased to have his support for my idea, but his motion is an echo.”

Wachs defended his motion, saying immediate action was needed in case there was a push to also host the 2004 games, in the event that Athens is unable to. Greg Nelson, his chief of staff, said Chick’s motion didn’t go far enough.

“What Chick had done is call for a report and study,” Nelson said. “We, in thinking about the issue separately, totally apart from that, realized we don’t need a report or study to tell us we need a charter amendment, as we did for the 1984 Olympics.”

Wachs also noted that before Chick introduced her motion on a charter amendment, he had received council approval of a declaration that no public money be used.

“I started it, and then came Laura’s motion,” Wachs said.

But what Wachs did next really irked Chick.

Wachs sent an e-mail Tuesday urging hundreds of supporters to call Chick and two other council members and lobby them in support of his motion.

Chick said one caller to her office was surprised to be told she had already started the ball rolling on a charter amendment. Chick didn’t think much of Wachs’ tactics.

“Sometimes elected officials running for office use all kinds of techniques, including those contrived and demagogic,” Chick said. “I think this fits into that category.”

Wachs downplayed the dispute. “The main thing is that the public is protected. The more people protecting them, the better.”

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TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS: With nearly half of the Los Angeles City Council members running for offices, from Congress to mayor and council, it is becoming much harder to get business done these days at City Hall.

On Wednesday the council had to wait 38 minutes past its usual start time to get a quorum, and some members were predicting campaign-related absences may force the cancellation of future meetings.

Also, Mayor Richard Riordan and several council members are nearing the end of their terms, and council President John Ferraro has missed many meetings because of illness.

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RUFF CROWD: Newly elected Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) has been courted to join numerous caucuses and coalitions since he was sworn in this month.

Schiff has already thrown his lot with a group that contends that ideological extremists gum up the works of Congress.

Schiff is one of five new members of the Blue Dog Coalition, a group of conservative and moderate Democrats who often vote with Republicans. The group was formed three years ago to provide bridge-building on major policy issues, including balancing the budget and welfare reform.

“The primary reason I am interested in the Blue Dogs is they have taken a very strong position on attacking the national debt,” Schiff said. “The biggest disagreement I had with the two presidential candidates is they both wanted to spend money we didn’t have.”

The coalition has proposed to use half of the budget surplus to pay down the nation’s debt, 25% for tax cuts and 25% for new spending.

Schiff beat conservative incumbent Republican James Rogan in a congressional race in which the challenger promised to work in a bipartisan way to collar the nation’s problems.

The group of 30 legislators took its name from a Southern expression that said a party loyalist would vote for a yellow dog if it were on the ballot as a Democrat.

“The ‘blue dog’ moniker was taken by members of the coalition because their moderate-to-conservative views had been ‘choked blue’ by their party in the years leading up to the ’94 election,” the group’s Web site states.

No word yet on whether Schiff’s decision to join the group will put him in the doghouse with more liberal party leaders. Committee assignments are scheduled to be announced in a few weeks.

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BIRD’S-EYE VIEW: Flying a helicopter out of Santa Monica and Van Nuys airports as a television newsman for years, Bob Tur has had a unique view of Los Angeles, from car chases to riots. Now he wants to take his city to new heights.

Tur, who owns Los Angeles News Service, has filed papers to run for mayor.

“Twenty-three years of covering local news really has had its effect on me,” Tur said. “I was there at ground zero during the riots. I’m seeing the same things happen now that happened before the riots. I’m seeing a Police Department being gutted.”

Tur, who grew up in Canoga Park and helped airlift victims of the Northridge earthquake to hospitals via helicopter, said he has a plan for relieving noise problems at Van Nuys Airport by relocating the television news copters from there to a downtown heliport.

Tur is one of 17 potential candidates who filed papers to raise money for possible campaigns.

The group is a colorful lot, including Valley gadfly Leonard Shapiro and Hollywood eccentric “Melrose” Larry Green.

Tur hopes his experience will help him rise above the crowd.

It’s not every candidate for mayor who can say he has been shot at by some of the city’s residents, as Tur was when he piloted the helicopter that captured the harrowing videotape of truck driver Reginald Denny being beaten by rioters in 1992.

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PREEMPTIVE STRIKE: One way for a liberal politician to attract attention is to show he is the target of a conservative special-interest group.

So Councilman Mike Feuer is creating some drama for his city attorney candidacy with a news conference scheduled for today. He will discuss “the National Rifle Association interference in the upcoming L.A. City Attorney’s race,” according to his press release.

The problem is, the NRA has not interfered in the race, nor does Feuer have direct evidence of plans by the group to get involved in the race. Feuer political consultant Larry Levine said the news conference is being held because Feuer expects the gun group to back one of the other candidates, based on its past practice of targeting gun-control advocates in other races.

“We would be naive to think if the NRA has sought to punish [other candidates] it won’t go after Mike Feuer,” Levine said.

That got a laugh from Rick Taylor, a political strategist for city attorney candidate Lea Purwin D’Agostino.

Taylor said his friend Levine is using an old tactic of trying to make Feuer look like a leader on gun control by creating a phantom NRA conspiracy where none exists.

If anyone is going to be targeted by the NRA, Taylor said, it’s his candidate, who has prosecuted people for gun offenses as a deputy district attorney.

“I think that is wishful thinking on the part of Mike Feuer,” Taylor said. “It’s totally ridiculous. The NRA has no vested interest in the race. There is no candidate that they could support.”

Calls to the NRA were not returned.

Feuer will receive the endorsement today of Handgun Control and leaders of the group Women Against Gun Violence for his work on pushing through gun control laws in the city.