Council Hopefuls Oppose Valley Landfill Expansion

Despite the additional cost, Los Angeles should haul its trash by rail to remote desert landfills rather than expand the Sunshine Canyon Landfill into the city, most candidates for the 12th District seat on the City Council said during a forum Monday.

On other issues, all five contenders participating in a forum on radio station KPCC-FM (89.3) supported breaking up the Los Angeles Unified School District and greatly expanding the police force. The election is March 4.

With Sunshine Canyon’s proposed expansion from an unincorporated part of the county into Granada Hills, candidates for the northwest San Fernando Valley seat were united Monday in opposing the landfill’s growth and offered several alternatives for disposing of the city’s trash.

Hauling trash to the desert was backed as an option by four candidates: school board member Julie Korenstein, businessman Walter Prince, home builder Robert Vinson and former Assemblywoman Paula Boland.

Also participating in the forum was businessman Norman Huberman, who said he would expand recycling programs to apartments and businesses in Los Angeles, an idea endorsed by the other candidates as well.

Prince said he believed residents would be willing to pay $20 more a month to have the trash hauled by rail away from Los Angeles rather than dumped in Granada Hills.

“As far as the cost is concerned, it doesn’t bother me a bit,” Prince said. “I don’t think most people in the city would mind that much paying an extra fee.”

Greig Smith, the leading fund-raiser in the race and the former chief of staff to incumbent Councilman Hal Bernson, backed out of the forum at a late hour, citing a scheduling conflict. Smith, who has voiced opposition to the landfill expansion, has skipped recent public forums.

Other candidates continued Monday to criticize him for the way the district has been represented.

Since Smith has been Bernson’s chief of staff, “we have only seen Sunshine Canyon get larger,” said Vinson, who proposed that the city also consider a trash-to-energy incinerator as an option to landfill expansion.

Some candidates indirectly criticized Korenstein by attacking the Los Angeles school district, even though the council has no direct role in school issues.

“The LAUSD clearly has failed our children and it has to be broken up into something more manageable,” Vinson said. “We have to have local control.”

In response, Korenstein said she has long supported creating a Valley school district, but criticized a recent proposal by board President Caprice Young to break the district into 30 districts as “ludicrous.”

“I have always stated that I would be absolutely supportive of a San Fernando Valley school district,” Korenstein said.