Council Candidates Share Their Visions for L.A.

It was 3 a.m., and Flora Gil Krisiloff was poring over the master plan the Department of Veterans Affairs had prepared for its sprawling Westside campus.

Deep in the appendix, Krisiloff discovered that the federal government was considering selling some of its 388 acres.

Fearing a commercial development that would overwhelm the Westside, Krisiloff led a successful fight against the proposal.

That victory in 2002 was one of the more public battles for Krisiloff, a longtime Brentwood activist.

The VA “was trying to pass a master plan that would have turned that property into three Century Cities,” recalled Sue Young, the executive director and founder of the Veterans Park Conservancy, a group dedicated to preserving the VA lands. “Flora was a hero. She read through that entire appendix -- I can’t tell you how thick it was -- and found what they were trying to do.”

Krisiloff is perhaps best known as the chairwoman of the Brentwood Community Council, which represents a wide variety of local interests and offers advice to the City Council. In 2000, she was also appointed to the city’s West Los Angeles Area Planning Commission, which resolves planning disputes.

On the campaign trail, Krisiloff frequently points to her lengthy resume, which runs for five pages on her website.

Readers can learn that Krisiloff was a Cub Scout den leader for six years and that on April 17, 2001, she spoke at the Westside Urban Forum panel on “Better Main Streets” and “The Future of Boulevards.”

“I ask people to look at my 20-year record of public service,” Krisiloff said. Running for office “just seems a natural progression. I never thought about it, but people pushed me to run.”

Krisiloff, 53, was born in Hong Kong and grew up in Taiwan as one of five children. Her mother, who was Chinese, was a nurse and her father, who was Chinese and Costa Rican, was a manager in the civilian air service.

With no television or car, Krisiloff said, “My life was spent at the library.”

In 1963, the family moved to the United States so that the Gils’ eldest daughter Libby could receive a better education. The family settled in Santa Fe Springs, and her father took a job in a steel mill. He later owned a gas station in La Habra.

“Once here, anything we [the children] did, we had to do on our own,” she said.

Krisiloff graduated from Santa Fe High in 1969 and earned a full scholarship to UCLA, where she received a degree in nursing. She spent a year driving a mobile health clinic that served migrant farmworkers in Idaho.

In 1980, she married Milton Krisiloff, a physician, and they moved to Brentwood from Mar Vista in 1984. The couple had three sons, and Krisiloff became a stay-at-home mom -- until the Brentwood Country Mart was slated to be replaced by a mini-mall.

That served as Krisiloff’s entry into activism. She pushed the city to change the zoning for the property, thereby stopping the mini-mall in its tracks.

“She’s the hardest-working person I’ve ever met,” said Elyse Arbour, who works with Krisiloff on the Community Council.

Krisiloff has raised about $249,000 for her campaign and spent much of her time trying to reach voters outside Brentwood.

Taking swipes at her two opponents has been part of her strategy. Bill Rosendahl has raised slightly more money than Krisiloff and has been endorsed by nine Council members.

“It’s like night and day in terms of the backgrounds of the candidates,” said Krisiloff, whose only council endorsement is from the incumbent, Cindy Miscikowski. “Bill has never really done anything at the community level, at the City Hall level.”

Krisiloff has focused on fixing gridlock -- she supports light rail -- and bringing smart development to the district.

The thrust of her campaign is promising to accomplish the little things that make neighborhoods better places to live -- more parks, more trees and business streets that aren’t eyesores.

She says that her experience as a nurse and mother has helped her diagnose problems and fix them.

“For me, the thrill is pushing the envelope,” Krisiloff said. “It’s doing something you’re told that you can’t do by organizing the people.”