Supervisors Battle Over Field Offices : Politics: Mike Antonovich maintains quarters in communities he no longer represents. Ed Edelman retaliates by refusing to approve Antonovich’s move to a more spacious site in Pasadena.

In the latest turf battle stemming from court-ordered redistricting, Supervisors Ed Edelman and Mike Antonovich are tussling over district offices in the San Fernando Valley.

Antonovich, who no longer represents most areas of the Valley, is refusing to close branch offices in Woodland Hills and Pacoima, even though Edelman began representing those communities after districts were redrawn in November.

Through a spokesman, Antonovich said he won’t relocate the Valley offices--which together cost the county almost $2,000 a month--until new district boundaries are drawn to reflect population changes recorded by the 1990 U.S. Census. The county boundary committee has until Oct. 1 to complete the new map.

The reason is financial, said Antonovich press deputy Dawson Oppenheimer: If Antonovich lost areas of the district where new offices were opened, or regained the old neighborhoods, the offices would have to move twice.

“It is far better for the taxpayer and for everyone,” Oppenheimer said. “We have no intention of domiciling permanently in someone else’s district.”

Edelman does not see it that way. Although he acknowledges that the county is struggling with far weightier issues, such as shrinking tax revenue, growing welfare rolls and an AIDS epidemic, the territorial dispute makes him fume.

As he sees it, Antonovich is stubbornly clinging to areas no longer in his domain. He calls it “district office wars” and says it’s silly and confusing for constituents. Also, he complained recently, Antonovich has issued commemorative scrolls for Valley organizations and citizens from communities he no longer represents.

“Sure, we’ve got other issues to fight, but he’s got to get squared away here,” Edelman said. “Either Mike will agree to straighten it out, or we’re going to find a way to straighten it out.”

So far, Edelman has retaliated by refusing to support Antonovich’s request for a larger field office in Pasadena.

Antonovich, who is out of town and could not be reached for comment, had represented the Valley since his 1980 election, but his new district includes only about 100,000 residents who live on the Valley’s northern and eastern rims, several miles from either of the offices.

Field offices function primarily as clearinghouses for questions and concerns of county residents, merchants and prospective builders. Supervisors had a total of 22 field offices before redistricting, with numbers varying widely from district to district.

Even though having offices in the wrong district is not illegal, according to the county counsel’s office, it is certainly unusual. In fact, the two Valley offices are the only old field offices that have not either been vacated or transferred to the district’s new representative, county leasing authorities said.

Leeta Pistone, Antonovich’s Woodland Hills deputy, said the office sign was taken off the outside of the Ventura Boulevard office building in March, but lettering on the office door still says, “Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich, Fifth District.”

Pistone said she has shifted some of her attention to the city of Santa Clarita, where Antonovich currently has no office. She also continues to respond to more than 25 calls and letters a week from residents of the old district.

“If it’s something simple we can handle, we go ahead and do it,” Pistone said. “Otherwise we refer it to Ed’s Van Nuys office.”

Although she would eventually like the office to move farther north, Pistone said the old office is not really inconvenient for her or for Antonovich’s constituents. Santa Clarita is about 25 minutes away by car, she said, which is closer than some areas of the Valley the office used to represent.

The Pacoima office, located on Glenoaks Boulevard, houses a county senior services center as well as an office for Antonovich deputy Bill Garcia. Claus Marx, chief of county leasing and space management, said the county probably would retain that office for the other uses if Garcia is transferred.

Most district office transfers and closures were completed in March, after the newest supervisor, Gloria Molina, took office, Marx said. Negotiations for new office locations for Molina, Edelman and Supervisor Deane Dana continue, he said.

Edelman has maintained his Valley field office in Van Nuys, a community he represented in the previous district alignments, and said he wants to add an office in Calabasas. He gave up his East Los Angeles office last month, Marx said, although the county will have to pay rent on it for another month because of a requirement that 60 days’ notice be given.

Antonovich has proposed moving his field office in Pasadena, which remains in his district, from its 300-square-foot quarters in the county courthouse to an office five times as large in a modern building nearby. Marx said the new office, which would cost about $2,600 a month, is sorely needed and could be lost if the district turf wars escalate.

“The owners want to get the contract started,” he said. “I don’t think a week’s delay is going to kill it, but if this lasts a long, long period, they’ve got some other alternatives in mind.”