Ballot Recommendations

Here are The Times’ recommendations in Los Angeles city elections today. The Times endorses selectively on a case-by-case basis.

L.A. Community College District

Proposition AA. NO. This bond measure to raise $980 million for the Los Angeles Community College District is badly mistimed, coming on the heels of a successful 2001 bond issue that raised $1.2 billion for needed repairs and rehabilitation of facilities. The district should first prove it can wisely spend the proceeds from that bond rather than go back to the well at a time when state and local governments are so fiscally strapped.

Trustee, District 3. Mona Field. Capable incumbent Field faces energetic businesswoman Joyce Burrell Garcia in a runoff. Field has done a steady job and deserves another term.

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Los Angeles City Council

District 10. Martin Ludlow. Ludlow’s opponent, former Nate Holden aide Deron Williams, has not been straightforward with voters and seems too comfortable with the crony politics of Holden’s years as councilman. Former legislative deputy Ludlow would give the badly neglected district straddling the Santa Monica Freeway a new voice, new ideas and a kick of energy.

District 12. Greig Smith. Smith, for 23 years a deputy to departing Los Angeles City Councilman Hal Bernson, and Julie Korenstein, a longtime Los Angeles Unified School District board member, are vying to represent the west San Fernando Valley’s 12th District. The Times endorsed Smith in the crowded primary and continues to believe he is the candidate who best knows how to get things done at City Hall.

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L.A. Unified School District Board

District 5. David Tokofsky. Equal parts gadfly and expert, Tokofsky has always focused on what the board is supposed to do: ensure a decent education. His runoff opponent in this Eagle Rock-to-Lennox district is former school administrator Nellie Rios- Parra, who lacks a broad agenda for improving schools.