Landfill Expansion an Early Issue in Mayoral Race

The race for mayor of Los Angeles has barely even started, but the candidates are already talking trash.

The planned expansion of Sunshine Canyon Landfill into Los Angeles is generating some early heat in the race, with activists in the northeast San Fernando Valley calling on candidate Bob Hertzberg to reverse his support for the trash dump.

In 1999, when the City Council approved the expansion, Hertzberg wrote a letter in favor of the dump, saying its growth “is environmentally sound and economically critical.” A year later, when Hertzberg became Assembly speaker, Browning-Ferris Industries, the operator of Sunshine Canyon Landfill, picked up part of the tab for a lavish party to mark Hertzberg’s elevation to the leadership position.

Hertzberg, a Van Nuys resident, is hoping that a strong showing in the Valley will be a key element of a win in the mayor’s race.

But his position on the dump expansion could cost him votes in the north Valley, according to Kim Thompson, a leader of the anti-landfill North Valley Coalition and a former appointee of Mayor James K. Hahn to the city Environmental Affairs Commission.

Hertzberg said last week that he had agreed to sit down with Thompson and other landfill opponents and hear their arguments against expanding the dump, as well as their case for putting an end to L.A.’s disposal of trash in the landfill.

“I am revisiting the issue,” he said. “I want to learn what the facts are.”

Hahn opposes the expansion and has vowed that if reelected, he would work to make Los Angeles a landfill-free city by 2006, when the city’s Sunshine contract expires.

State Sen. Richard Alarcon (D-Sun Valley), another contender, has also fought the landfill, adding: “I would work very hard to block any further use of the landfill in the city.”

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A Bumpy Flight From Burbank to Sacramento

A feminist legislator and an evangelical preacher walk onto an airplane.

It may sound like the start of a joke, but it really happened. The result was some turbulence on a recent flight from Burbank to Sacramento that ended up requiring the intervention of a flight attendant.

State Sen. Gloria Romero (D-Los Angeles) was returning to the capital last week when she boarded a Southwest Airlines flight in Burbank and ended up sitting next to Pastor Ralph Drollinger, who conducts Bible studies for state legislators.

Drollinger, who heads the national Christian evangelical group Capitol Ministries, sparked a controversy last month when he sent a memo to lawmakers remarking that women lawmakers are “sinful” for leaving their kids at home so they can work.

Romero said she didn’t know what Drollinger looked like when she took an empty seat next to him on the flight.

It wasn’t until state Sen. Gil Cedillo (D-Los Angeles) acknowledged Drollinger and Romero by name that Romero realized she was in for a long flight.

After some awkward silence, Drollinger pointed to a newspaper article Romero was reading and said it looked like Jim Brulte, the former Senate GOP leader, was going to run for the state Board of Equalization.

“I couldn’t resist any longer,” Romero recalled. “I said, ‘Well, since he is a man and isn’t a working woman with small children at home, I guess he can run for the Board of Equalization.’ ”

Romero said Drollinger opened his Bible and started quoting the scripture about why women should stay home. When she asked him to stop, he wouldn’t, she said.

So Romero called over a flight attendant and said Drollinger was harassing her.

The flight attendant said a few words, and Romero and Drollinger spent the rest of the flight sitting next to each other in silence.

Drollinger saw the 10-minute exchange differently: “I was trying to make polite conversation, and she just launched and started preaching at me,” he said. “I just said if God gives you kids, be responsible and raise them. Don’t come up here [to Sacramento] four days a week.”

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O.C. Sheriff Denies Support of License Bill

Did a political group misfire at Orange County Sheriff Mike Carona?

Carona thinks so, after the “Save Our State/Save Prop. 187” folks blasted a rebuke of Carona to media outlets statewide accusing the sheriff of supporting SB 1160, a controversial bill by Cedillo that would allow state driver’s licenses to be issued regardless of a person’s legal status in the country.

Their evidence of Carona’s “inferred support”: The sheriff attended a mid-May forum in Santa Ana that included a rally to support Cedillo’s bill.

But sheriff’s spokesman Jon Fleischman said Carona went to discuss “cross-deputizing” local law-enforcement agencies to investigate undocumented criminals who prey on fellow immigrants and residents.

The sheriff also assured the crowd that he would protect them from crime, regardless of their residency status, Fleischman said.

Carona, however, is “vehemently opposed” to Cedillo’s bill and has lobbied Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger against issuing driver’s licenses, which can be used as documentation to enter the country, “to individuals that, by definition, are undocumented,” Fleischman said.

The dust-up was a return to the fire, of sorts, for Fleischman, who spent the past three months attending the Orange County Sheriff’s Academy and became a reserve deputy.

So he’s now a spokesman with real firepower.

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Celebrities Raise a Glass, and Funds, for Politicos

Northern Californians complain that L.A. takes their water, but that doesn’t stop Bay Area politicians from coming south for our cash.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom is the latest from the north to hit Los Angeles for a fill-up for his campaign treasury.

Having raised his profile nationally by sanctioning same-sex marriages, Newsom is scheduled to be honored tonight at the Brentwood home of actor and director Rob Reiner.

The fundraiser is being co-hosted by entertainment industry figures, including singer Barbra Streisand and her husband, James Brolin, as well as television producer Norman Lear.

“Gavin has emerged as a true hero and has solidified his role in American history as a champion of equal rights for all,” Reiner wrote in a letter of invitation for the event.

Newsom’s campaign for mayor last year ran up a $400,000 debt, so the $750-per-person reception will help the 36-year-old mayor balance the books.

The Hollywood crowd also was scheduled to turn out Sunday night for a fundraiser for Ohio congressman and Democratic presidential candidate Dennis J. Kucinich. The event was hosted by actress Mimi Kennedy (a.k.a. Abby on “Dharma & Greg”) at Tamarin restaurant in Beverly Hills.

“Dennis has kept his promise to run the entire distance in the presidential race sticking to campaign finance reform guidelines, which limit contributions and protect from corporate manipulation of his leadership,” Kennedy said.

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Points Taken

* Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante raised some big bucks for his campaign account in Mexico last week with a sold-out golf tournament at Bajamar Golf Resort in Baja California. That is according to the Capitol Morning Report. Lobbyists and others who do business in Sacramento turned out for the event, where a $30,000 sponsorship bought a round of golf for six, a VIP dinner for six with Bustamante, deluxe resort accommodations and a list of other perks. The lowest contribution level was $2,000, which bought the donor a round of golf for one.

* The Democratic Leadership Council has named Los Angeles City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo as the council’s New Democrat of the Week for last week, citing his leadership in curbing urban industrial pollution practices in Los Angeles. Delgadillo earned praise for his creation of Los Angeles’ Environmental Justice Enforcement and Compliance Team, which combats serious environmental crimes that plague some of Los Angeles’ most disadvantaged neighborhoods.

* Opponents of California’s controversial three-strikes law were buoyed last week when the Field Poll found that 76% of voters statewide would support a measure requiring that the third and final “strike” be a serious, violent felony that would subject defendants to sentences of 25 years to life.

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You Can Quote Me

“The Pistons have about as much chance of winning as the Edsel does of coming back.”

-- U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, after she and Sen. Barbara Boxer placed a friendly wager with their counterparts from Michigan that the Los Angeles Lakers would beat Detroit in the NBA Finals.

If the Lakers win, the Michigan legislators will send Feinstein and Boxer cherry pies, Vernor’s Ginger Ale, Motown CDs and two bottles of Michigan wine. The Michiganders would get Disneyland tickets, a crate of avocados and two bottles of California wine, if the Pistons win.

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This week’s contributors include Times staff writer Jean O. Pasco.