Miscikowski Campaign Hits Bump Over Local Issues

If she ever doubts that the road to reelection can be a bumpy one, all Los Angeles City Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski has to do is drive into Mandeville Canyon. That’s where a dispute over speed bumps is giving a surprise bounce to the campaign of 11th Council District challenger Arthur Mortell.

Miscikowski endorsed the installation of five traffic-slowing pavement humps on Mandeville Canyon Road after residents at the bottom of the canyon complained of cars whizzing through their neighborhood.

But that didn’t please many of the 700 or so families living in the canyon’s upper end, who argue that the bumps will delay emergency vehicles. And that unhappiness is apparently going to cost the first-term councilwoman some votes in the April 10 election.

“I supported her before,” said Jim Wright, president of the Upper Mandeville Canyon Assn., a homeowners group that represents 450 families. “This election will be a tough one for me.”

Five speed bumps would normally not seem like enough to slow down an incumbent City Council member who is campaigning for reelection on a record of getting things done. But, like any reelection campaign, the April 10 primary is shaping up as a referendum on the incumbent--and little things can matter a lot.

The sprawling 11th District is mostly residential and affluent, stretching from the Westside over the Santa Monica Mountains into the southwestern San Fernando Valley.

Its 65 square miles include Brentwood, Pacific Palisades, Woodland Hills, Tarzana, Encino and parts of the Sherman Oaks-Van Nuys area--places where its 245,000 residents aren’t shy about standing up to protect their neighborhoods.

Mandeville Canyon’s speed bump dispute is emblematic of dust-ups across the district that are proving some community leaders aren’t reluctant, either, to grumble that Miscikowski has let them down during her first 3 1/2 years in office.

Miscikowski, 52, says she has worked aggressively to improve local communities, while struggling with citywide problems such as police reform and paramedic staffing. Her supporters say she has been a success at both.

Mortell, at 37 her sole opponent, says the councilwoman’s coziness with builders, City Hall lobbyists and big-money contributors is leading to overdevelopment in the 11th District. His supporters say Mortell is independent-minded enough to shun that type of influence.

Miscikowski, a Brentwood resident, is married to lawyer and developer Doug Ring. She was a 22-year former aide to 11th District Councilman Marvin Braude in 1997 when she won his seat by defeating Georgia Mercer, a former aide to Mayor Richard Riordan. But her margin of victory was slim--1,375 votes--in an election that drew a scant 24,479 district voters to the polls.

Mortell, a Pacific Palisades sales and management training consultant, is married to actress Dinah Manoff. A political novice, he says Miscikowski’s missteps across the district have alienated enough of her early supporters to make her vulnerable in next month’s election.

Miscikowski also faces controversy in Pacific Palisades over her support of the $150-million expansion of the Getty Villa art museum.

Some Brentwood residents are seething over what they say is unbridled construction clogging streets and destroying what remains of the community’s small-town environment. They complain that Miscikowski has refused to take a stand on the controversial plan to turn a short block of Gorham Avenue near the busy intersection of San Vicente Boulevard and Barrington Avenue into a mini-mall.

“It’s almost like she’s trying to pass the buck,” said Brentwood resident Samantha Greenberg, who has circulated petitions against what locals call the Gorham Land Grab. “There’s so much overdevelopment here. Things are being snuck in that we’re opposed to and she knows it.”

While Mortell has come out against the mini-mall, Miscikowski says she will take a position on giving away the stretch of Gorham Avenue for a mini-mall “when it is at a point of decision” with city officials.

Brentwood environmental activist Patricia Bell Hearst chides Miscikowski for allegedly failing to keep the public informed about development plans for the Westside’s Veterans Affairs hospital grounds. “I think some people are embarrassed to say they voted for her,” Hearst said.

Bob Locker, who heads the 800-family Pacific Palisades Residents Assn., accuses Miscikowski of flip-flopping on expanding the Getty Villa above Pacific Coast Highway with construction of an outdoor amphitheater. Homeowners went to court to block the project last year after Miscikowski and other council members approved it.

“We were led to believe Cindy supported us,” Locker said. “I supported her in her original election campaign, as did many of my neighbors around here. We’ve been disappointed. This time I’m supporting her opposition. I feel Cindy’s too well-connected with downtown interests.”

Miscikowski says she has worked through the Brentwood Community Council to keep residents informed about the VA expansion. She says she sought a compromise over the Getty Villa expansion. “It wasn’t a last-minute thing,” Miscikowski said. She opposed a large amphitheater and got the plan “ratcheted down” to about 450 seats, she says.

Gordon Murley, president of the Woodland Hills Homeowners Organization, says Miscikowski often seems to side with homeowners on small issues but with developers on the bigger ones.

“It’s kind of sad. I’ve always thought she was the smartest, brightest person we’ve had in City Hall. But she seems greatly compromised,” Murley said. “I thought at one time she could become the first lady mayor of Los Angeles. But she’s greatly disappointed all of us.”

Not everyone feels that way, however. Supporters say the councilwoman has pressed for city services for her district and has made good on her campaign pledges.

“She’s done a great job for us,” said Don Schultz, Van Nuys Homeowners Assn. president. “We got a campaign promise from her last time that Van Nuys would be her priority and she’s kept her promise.”

An initiative backed by Miscikowski has funneled $3 million into Van Nuys for such things as new benches, trash cans and street lighting, Schultz says.

Resident Penny Meyer says a flower garden paid for by the initiative now brightens the street where she has lived for 31 years. “Cindy’s fabulous. She’s been an inspiration,” Meyer said.

Flora Gil Krisiloff, who heads the Brentwood Community Council created 2 1/2 years ago by Miscikowski, says the councilwoman’s expertise in land-use matters has helped the city work out compromises on such thorny issues as traffic headaches caused by the opening of the private Archer School on Sunset Boulevard.

“She tries not to take a position too early, before the sides are fleshed out. She puts a lot of time into trying to balance out the different needs. She knows she can’t please everyone,” Krisiloff said.

Challenger Mortell suggests that Miscikowski’s ties to lobbyists and contributors, who have pumped more than $167,000 into her campaign, may be related to her stance on development in the district. Among her donors is Bryan Gordon, the developer attempting to build the Gorham Avenue mini-mall. Her reelection campaign chairman is the lobbyist who represented Getty Villa, Mortell says.

“You can’t tell me there’s not a conflict of interest there. She has to say yes to them. She can’t say no and expect to receive money from them in the next election cycle. We shouldn’t have to protect ourselves from our councilperson,” said Mortell, who plans to spend $35,000.

Miscikowski denies any conflict. “He can’t point to a single project” where she has been influenced by campaign contributors or lobbyists, she says of Mortell.

As for Mandeville Canyon’s speed bumps, characterized as “speed tables” by traffic engineers, Miscikowski indicates she looks at their installation as a test: If they cause more problems then they solve, they can be removed.

So as the election draws near, such neighborhood issues continue to loom large in the 11th District.

“Cindy’s done a lot. On the whole, she’s done a terrific job,” said Eric Edmunds, a Mandeville Canyon resident who heads the 500-home Brentwood Hills Homeowners Assn.

“But I’m not in favor of speed tables on Mandeville and she’s in favor. This is one of the things we don’t see eye to eye on.”

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District 11

Key Issues:

Overdevelopment; LAPD reform; local police service, neighborhood councils, DWP water reclamation efforts.

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Candidates:

* Cindy Miscikowski, 52, incumbent councilwoman, lives in Brentwood

* Arthur W. Mortell, 37, sales and management training consultant, lives in Pacific Palisades