Wachs Steps Up Push for San Fernando Valley Votes

Attempting to charge up his campaign and wrest control of San Fernando Valley voters from a key rival, mayoral candidate Joel Wachs launched a television ad Thursday calling for the ouster of Police Chief Bernard C. Parks and released a mailer attacking opponent Steve Soboroff.

In the intensifying race for mayor, the California Republican Party fired off two new mailers, backing Soboroff and blasting his five main opponents as “old-style Los Angeles politicians.”

The Republican businessman, meanwhile, announced a plan to prevent schoolchildren from joining gangs.

Wachs’ new aggressive stance comes as polls show the veteran Los Angeles city councilman stuck in a pack of several candidates 2 1/2 weeks before the April 10 election. Wachs and his opponents previously had assumed that the council veteran would hover near the lead in the contest to replace Mayor Richard Riordan.

Instead, Wachs appears to be straining to set himself apart even in the Valley, where his political career has been based for nearly three decades. The mailer--attacking Soboroff on school construction issues and support for the Staples Center Arena--was sent to 44,000 Valley residents.

Titled “Our Valley, Our Vote,” it depicts Wachs as fighting wasteful spending on Belmont Learning Center school construction and opposing taxpayer subsidies for the Staples Center Arena.

The mailing is topped by Wachs’ oft-repeated assertion that he saved taxpayers $150 million by insisting that the developers of the Staples Center, rather than the city treasury, repay bonds issued for construction of the project.

Some critics, including Soboroff, have countered that Wachs’ Staples protests nearly forced the sports arena out of the city, while gaining little financial benefit for the city.

The Wachs mailer accuses Soboroff of brokering a “back room deal to give your tax dollars to billionaire sports team owners for their new arena.”

Soboroff speaks with pride about his role in bringing the Staples Center to Los Angeles. Soboroff and others, including a university researcher of government investments in sports complexes, say that Staples will make enough revenue to ensure it does not burden taxpayers.

Finally, the mailer lashes Soboroff for negotiating the sale of the Van Nuys Drive-In Theater site to an auto dealer, depriving the Los Angeles Unified School District of a much-needed school site. The “shocking” deal earned Soboroff $200,000, according to the mailer.

The Soboroff campaign said the candidate, as real estate broker for the property, tried repeatedly to get the district to acquire the land.

Months after the Los Angeles Unified School District failed to act on the plan, Soboroff instead arranged a sale to the auto dealer. The $200,000 brokerage fee is exaggerated and was split between Soboroff and three partners, said Soboroff campaign consultant Ace Smith.

Among political strategists, the attack on Soboroff was not a surprise. A recent Times poll made it clear that he is drawing support from voters who otherwise probably would vote for Wachs.

The councilman’s new television ad reaches for a broader audience by highlighting one of his most distinctive policy stands. Alone among the top six candidates, Wachs has said that he would move immediately upon taking the mayor’s office to replace Parks.

In a 15-second spot, Wachs speaks directly to viewers: “I think we need a fresh start,” he says. “As mayor, I’ll appoint a new Police Commission and a new chief, who will reform the department, but still allow the police to do the job we ask.”

While Parks’ popularity has been fading, it is unclear what Wachs gains from the stand. Opponents have said that he is merely turning the chief into a lame duck, who will have more trouble managing his department. But Wachs’ supporters said he is taking a decisive stand on one of the most important personnel matters facing the next mayor.

Unlike Wachs, Soboroff has the advantage of allowing the Republican Party to make the sharp attacks on his opponents. The candidate, meanwhile, said he would not comment on Wachs’ critiques and instead tried to focus Thursday on his gang control plan.

Soboroff says the city needs to be more aggressive about seeking out and helping the most troubled youths, not waiting for them to pursue programs themselves.

Soboroff, who says there are seven gang members for every police officer in Los Angeles, said he would work with community organizations, businesses, schools and churches to identify and help young people before they succumb to the lure of gangs.

“I am completely committed to this challenge, and through the program I outlined, fighting block by block, school by school and child by child to make sure that no child falls through the cracks, we will succeed,” he said in a statement.

Soboroff would require chronically truant students to attend a school meeting with their parents to discuss why they are absent. Police officers will be encouraged to contact all youth on the streets during school hours, take them to their schools, make sure they are enrolled and refer those who need help to gang prevention programs.

He also wants to implement new gang prevention programs modeled on successful efforts in other cities.

In addition, he said, he would work with the private sector to provide free tattoo removal for all gang members, and encourage employers to support workers’ efforts to be involved in their children’s lives.