Group begins bid to recall Weiss

Touting the issue of snarled Westside traffic, a small group of homeowners on Tuesday tried to serve Los Angeles City Councilman Jack Weiss with a notice they intend to recall him from office, alleging that he is too welcoming of development.

Although the recall campaign is still in its early stages -- and the city clerk is not sure Weiss was properly served -- the effort has the potential to be a bellwether of public attitudes about the building boom on the city’s Westside and in neighboring Beverly Hills and Santa Monica. Critics are concerned that the development will worsen the area’s notorious traffic congestion.

The move comes as Weiss, a former federal prosecutor, is ramping up his campaign for city attorney in 2009, with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa serving as chairman. Although Weiss is so far unopposed in that race, the recall movement means he may be faced with running two campaigns -- one to keep his job, the other for his potential future job.

Weiss and his supporters see the recall effort in far narrower terms. In their view, it stems directly from a group of homeowners who last year tried to negotiate a $5-million mitigation fund that they would control from the developer of two residential towers in Century City. In exchange for the fund, the group would have agreed to drop their opposition to the project.

“What this recall is really about is money and greed and special interests who want to operate in the shadows without any public oversight,” said Larry Levine, Weiss’ political consultant. “These people are not anti-development. They will support any development as long as they get a cut of the action.”

The homeowners delivered the notice to Weiss’ City Hall office, but the city clerk was not sure that met legal requirements.

Recall movements in Los Angeles have a long history of fizzling. The last time a council member faced a recall election was in 1984, when Art Snyder retained his job, and the last time voters removed a council member from office was in 1946, according to the city clerk’s office.

What distinguishes this effort is that Weiss, who won reelection in a landslide in 2005, is facing a group of affluent homeowners who are determined to make the recall a referendum on the emotional issue of Westside traffic.

Weiss represents Century City, Cheviot Hills, the Fairfax district, Westwood, and Sherman Oaks and Encino in the San Fernando Valley. Among the controversies that have roiled his district and surrounding areas in recent decades have been the development of the Beverly Center and the Grove, the potential development of the Department of Veterans Affairs property along the 405 Freeway and a wave of new projects in surrounding Westside communities.

The recall notice to Weiss read: “The primary grounds for recall are your extraordinary disdain for the process of governing, your complete lack of respect for constituents and your failure to conduct city business in a transparent manner that allows constituents the same access and consideration given to special interests.”

The start of the recall campaign comes one week after the group updated its website. The site depicts Weiss wearing a hard hat and being showered with money bearing his own likeness -- to the Ray Charles tune “Hit the Road Jack.”

About 40 homeowners gathered on Motor Avenue during the Tuesday morning rush hour to announce the recall bid. As a southern gateway into Fox Studios and Century City, Motor is often clogged, but on Tuesday vehicles were flowing freely as people waved signs saying, “Sick of Overdevelopment?” and “Traffic Getting Worse.”

Some argued that rampant development was the main reason for the recall effort. Others said it was a matter of style -- that Weiss was condescending and prone to paying too much attention to his cellphone during meetings and not enough to his constituents. “I think this is a message to him and the rest of the council that they have to listen to us,” said Caroline Altman of Cheviot Hills.

Among those who showed up to support the recall drive was David Vahedi, who ran against the incumbent Weiss in 2005 and lost by a large margin. Vahedi said he does not plan to run to replace Weiss.

Several supporters of the councilman were also on the scene. “We feel this effort is being done for the wrong reasons,” said Rabbi Daniel Korobkin, who described himself as a friend of Weiss. “We’re not in Kansas. This is a large city with natural growth, and you can’t blame Jack for the development of a large city. There is going to be traffic, and that is the price of living in Los Angeles.”

In order to qualify for the ballot, the recall effort will have 120 days to gather nearly 23,000 signatures from registered voters in the district -- a task that recall organizers say will probably require that they raise $200,000. If they succeed, a runoff election will be held, with a simple majority needed to oust Weiss. Also on the ballot would be a list of candidates to replace him.

The incident that may have triggered the recall effort began last year when developer JMB was seeking city approval for a pair of 47-story buildings in Century City that would be among the tallest in Los Angeles.

A group of homeowners led by Mike Eveloff, president of the Tract 7260 Homeowners Assn. near Century City, spearheaded a drive to secure funding for area schools, libraries, parks and roads to help alleviate the negative effects of the project. Eveloff is leading the recall campaign.

He sought a $5-million payment from JMB, plus profits from another JMB project.

That deal fell apart. Eveloff’s group sued, alleging that the city had vastly underestimated the traffic that would be created by the project, and therefore improperly approved it.

“We don’t have a friend in the council office, and we’re facing the complete and total power of the lawyers and lobbyists, so, for us,” striking a deal “was a cost-benefit analysis,” said Eveloff.

City records show that lawyers for the developer complained to the city at one point that Eveloff had sent them a business prospectus for his software firm. Eveloff said Tuesday that the prospectus was unrelated to the development issue.

In the end, Weiss secured the $5 million from JMB and put the funds under the control of the city, two neighborhood councils and area homeowner groups -- angering Eveloff and his group, who wanted greater control to ensure the money would be spent as they wanted.

“As far as I’m concerned, the public policy issue is whether developers can make private payoffs to buy support for their projects or whether these are public funds which should be used exclusively to benefit the public,” Weiss said. “When I found out what these people are trying to do, I said, ‘No, that’s wrong.’ ”

Eveloff called the money secured by the councilman “a slush fund” for Weiss.

Sitting on the sidelines of the dispute is Richard Close, longtime president of the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Assn., who has often been critical of City Hall.

Close said his group was approached about joining the recall effort but declined because Weiss and his staff have been responsive.

He also suggested that the councilman pay more attention to neighborhood concerns.

“We have issues with a number of the projects that have been approved by the city in violation of the zoning rules,” Close said. Through Weiss’ help “these projects have gotten exceptions and variances from the city rules. But on balance we have found him to be helpful.”

steve.hymon@latimes.com