Valley Council and Mayoral Candidates Mingle at Rally

Real estate agent Mel Wilson, a candidate for mayor of the San Fernando Valley city should it be established next fall, gathered about 200 people around him in the searing summer heat and told the story of David and Goliath.

The supporters of Valley cityhood who had squeezed under the awning of a Van Nuys hotel understood his message: that the battle ahead would be an uphill one.

“David picked up that rock,” Wilson said. “And he knocked down that big giant. That big giant of city hall and big unions.”

The crowd, consisting mostly of candidates for a Valley city council and mayor and their families, cheered. Then its members went inside for muffins, coffee and the first organizational cityhood campaign rally.

In a donated ballroom festooned with balloons and bunting, candidates networked, passing out lawn signs, business cards and campaign buttons.

All told, there are 121 candidates for mayor and council in the proposed Valley city, which would have 14 council districts and an elected mayor.

Most say they do not expect to raise much money for their campaigns, which must focus as much on support for cityhood as on individual races--after all, it is in the nature of this odd campaign that, unless a Valley city is created in November, there will be no offices to hold. To be created, a Valley city must win the support of majorities of voters, both in the Valley and citywide.

Assemblyman Keith Richman (R-Northridge), a physician and businessman who is running for Valley mayor while also serving his first term, said his experience in founding and running one of the state’s largest medical groups qualifies him to help set up and run a new city.

If elected, Richman said, he would put more officers on the streets, cut business taxes in half and provide better city services. The candidate, who raised the concern of neighborhood groups when he supported the controversial Ahmanson Ranch housing project, said he was rethinking that position.

Richman said he would work to improve the business climate in the Valley and would bring back community policing.

Until Wilson’s entry this week, Richman was the clear front-runner in the race. He remains the only candidate with a sophisticated political organization and fund-raising apparatus.

But Wilson, the former president of the United Chambers of Commerce of the San Fernando Valley, is the only candidate who has longtime ties to the Valley business establishment, whose members have backed the cityhood campaign all along.

If elected, Wilson said, he would support neighborhood councils like those mandated by recent charter reforms in Los Angeles. But while L.A.’s neighborhood councils are only advisory, Wilson envisions giving them decision-making power in a new city.

Wilson said he would reduce business taxes and support keeping the Los Angeles Police Department as the police force for the new city.

As the most prominent Democrat running in a mostly Democratic region, Wilson said he hopes to raise between $400,000 and $500,000 for his campaign. Cityhood backers, who have supported Richman’s candidacy, were jubilant when Wilson entered the race.

“Did you hear that Mel Wilson filed his papers?” asked a secession backer, Richard Leyner, himself a past president of the United Chambers and a candidate for a Valley city council seat. “He’s a beautiful guy.”

Richman cited his own history of civic involvement in the Valley, and said that he had always expected the race to be competitive.

“We’re going to run a very hard campaign,” he said.

Wilson’s entry into the race coincided with the first public appearance at a secession rally by one Valley business leader, Bert Boeckmann, who has kept out of the limelight and, despite early financial support for the effort to put cityhood before voters, had not taken a firm stand in favor of secession.

On Saturday, Boeckmann appeared to be throwing his support to the cityhood crowd.

“I love Los Angeles, and I love the San Fernando Valley,” said Boeckmann, a conservative who owns Galpin Ford in North Hills, the nation’s largest Ford dealership. “I have always felt that they would be better managed if they were two cities.”

But Wilson’s entry into the race seemed to complicate matters for Boeckmann, as it has for other secession backers. The auto dealer had earlier agreed to hold a campaign event for Richman, but on Saturday he said he would hold events and give support to more than one candidate.

Another key candidate for the mayoral post is Benny Bernal, a school bus driver and union activist from Mission Hills.

Bernal said that, if elected, he would work to make sure union members and other workers were well represented. He also promised to improve public transportation in the Valley, where buses are infrequent and the subway ends at North Hollywood, miles from the northeast or western parts of the region.

Mayoral candidate David Raymond Hernandez Jr., an insurance adjuster from Valley Village, said he would focus on transportation and health care. As mayor, Hernandez said, he would use the city’s influence to improve Olive View Medical Center, a Los Angeles County facility in Sylmar.

Hernandez, who is the Republican candidate against Howard Berman in the East Valley’s 28th Congressional District, said he thinks of himself as “extremely moderate to liberal” politically.

Mayoral candidate Marc Strassman of Valley Village said he does not expect to raise much money for what some might say was a quixotic campaign. Instead, Strassman said, he hopes to be elected by dint of his ideas, which he plans to disseminate on the Internet.

The fast-talking Internet consultant wasn’t impressed with all the networking and politicking at Saturday’s event.

“It’s all relationships,” he groused. “I had hoped to talk about the issues.”

*

Times Staff Writer Patrick McGreevy contributed to this report.