Mirthful Activists Tell City Hall: Hey, Jest a Minute!

England recently chose its first official jester in 350 years, but Los Angeles has long had a merry band of unofficial jesters to poke fun at its political elite.

Fighting City Hall with sarcasm, a group of gadflies known as the Hollywood PAC has taken aim at the foibles of Los Angeles elected officials, whether it’s the ban on silly string or the proliferation of no-smoking policies at beaches.

The group has struck again. This time it’s skewering the City Council’s penchant for adopting petitions by residents seeking to rename one of the city’s neighborhoods to make it sound more exclusive.

At its last meeting, the eight community activists noted that the City Council has renamed parts of Atwater, Los Feliz and Larchmont as Atwater Village, Los Feliz Village and Larchmont Village.

The PAC adopted a formal resolution asking the city to “support changing our community’s name from ‘Hollywood’ to ‘Hollywood Village’ to increase real estate values.”

John Walsh, a PAC leader, said city officials have yet to respond.

Walsh said the idea came from a conversation with a friend who said his home’s value went up $15,000 after a portion of North Hollywood acquired the rustic moniker Valley Village.

“It’s a case of it being so silly it is true and so true it is silly,” said Walsh, a substitute teacher who is well known at City Hall.

The PAC was created more than 20 years ago by the city redevelopment agency as an advisory group on development projects, but it was stripped of its official standing in 1989 after members became aggressive in opposing city proposals.

Now a sort of feral neighborhood council, the group meets monthly and has 50 people, including government officials, on its mailing list.

The PAC’s antics have been reported by such sober-minded media institutions as the BBC. The Brits loved it when the group launched a campaign dubbed “Anybody but Arnold” during last year’s recall.

The group picketed on Hollywood Boulevard, pointing out that anybody could be governor but no one could take Arnold Schwarzenegger’s place in the movies.

At its last meeting the whimsical approach was clear in another resolution, which asked the city to grant homeless funding to the Borders store at Sunset and Vine “for the excellent work this bookstore is doing while serving as a rest station for Hollywood’s indigents.”

GOP Activist Serves Up

Some Partisan Red Meat

At a little-publicized forum on how to win a Republican majority, commentator Grover Norquist served up some very red-meat talk to two dozen delighted conservatives.

Norquist divided the world in half: the good (the “leave-us-alone coalition”) and the bad (the “takings coalition”).

The good side, he said, includes gun owners, home schoolers, small-business owners and communities of faith.

The bad side includes people on welfare, welfare workers “who make $80,000 a year,” the “coercive utopians,” people who “get government grants for recycling, the small-toilet movement, people who tell you you can’t wear leather, can’t date girls and a whole bunch of stuff that makes Leviticus sound reasonable.”

“They are not friends, they are competing parasites,” Norquist said. “Our job as Republicans is to make it impossible for them to eat us.”

He added about the Democrats, “The other team is not stupid, they are evil.”

To beat U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, a Bay Area Democrat, Jones has to hope he gets a few votes from the evil, small-toilet team.

Battle Lines Are Being

Drawn Over Nomination

A fight is brewing over the anticipated appointment of a longtime farming lobbyist to head the state department that oversees pesticide regulation.

Agricultural interests and environmentalists both expect Gov. Schwarzenegger to nominate Mary-Ann Warmerdam, who lobbied for many years for the California Farm Bureau. But the unanimity ends there. Agricultural groups view her as one of their own, while environmentalists question her lack of experience with pesticides and fear her appointment represents another move by the governor to side with business interests in a key regulatory post, the Department of Pesticide Regulation.

Environmentalists sent a letter to the governor last week asking him to delay the appointment. Warmerdam, who has worked since January as a lobbyist for PG&E;, specialized in water issues at the Farm Bureau, a statewide organization representing farmers. She and her husband, Robert Falconer, director of the California Assn. of Nurseries, own a small almond orchard in Yolo County.

Politician Puts Money

Where His Name Is

It used to be that a politician had to die before his name was emblazoned on a government building. Now all he has to do is round up some cash for the building.

Last week, the Lynwood Unified School District board voted to name a high school under construction after Assemblyman Marco Firebaugh, a Democrat from Los Angeles. Firebaugh, who was elected to the Assembly in 1998 and reelected once, is hardly the kind of pol one might expect to be honored with a name on a school.

School Board President Rachel Chavez called Firebaugh “a true champion in our community.” And, oh, yeah, he also helped get money for the school, she said.

Not everyone likes the idea.

“I think it’s pretty pompous,” said Ruth Gilson, who ran against Firebaugh for the Assembly seat two years ago. “I think they are doing that to support him politically so he can continue helping them, but that’s his job to get money for the schools.”

Libertarian Was on the

Outside of This Debate

It was the sidewalk, not the stage, for Libertarian U.S. Senate candidate James P. Gray, an Orange County Superior Court judge who sued to be allowed onstage at the first and only televised Senate debate -- and lost.

Gray, best known statewide for his opposition to drug laws, and about two dozen supporters -- carrying signs reading “Fake Debate!” and “Let Gray Debate!” -- mingled outside the Museum of Tolerance with anyone who would listen while incumbent Barbara Boxer and Republican challenger Bill Jones prepared for their face-off inside.

The League of Women Voters, which sponsored the televised forum, said Gray was excluded because he didn’t meet the cut for those appearing, who needed at least a 10% showing in an independent statewide poll.

Points Taken

* Sen. Barbara Boxer’s reelection campaign gets some help from Hollywood next week, when celebrities Ed Asner, Melissa Gilbert, Meredith Baxter and William H. Macy host a fundraiser at the Brentwood home of celebrity political commentator Arianna Huffington.

* Hit with criticism that the website for Mayor James K. Hahn’s reelection campaign is out of date, the mayor’s people have removed the 3-year-old material from his last campaign. “This site is currently under construction,” the site now reads. That’s progress.

You Can Quote Me:

“Given this alleged cloud of corruption and ‘pay-to-play’ politics, I strongly urge you to return this money and avoid tainting city government with continued perceptions of malfeasance.”

-- Los Angeles City Council candidate Flora Gil Krisiloff in a letter to fellow contender Bill Rosendahl, challenging him to return a $500 contribution from Fleishman-Hillard, the PR firm that is the focus of a grand jury investigation, an audit and a lawsuit claiming it overbilled the city of Los Angeles.

Contributing this week were Times staff writers Peter Nicholas, Jean O. Pasco, Miriam Pawel and Robert Salladay.