CITY HALL ROUNDUP : Councilwoman’s son handles home sale and she ‘got nothing but grief.’

FAMILY TIES: When Redondo Beach City Manager William Kirchhoff bought a house with financial help from the city recently, his real estate agent, it turns out, was Councilwoman Kay Horrell’s son.

The connection is drawing questions from city Treasurer Alice DeLong, who wants to know exactly how Jay Horrell came to handle the purchase of the city manager’s $485,000 home.

The councilwoman says that her son’s name came up in casual conversation among Kirchhoff and other city officials and that she made no effort to steer the city manager in her son’s direction. Kirchhoff seconds that account.

And Horrell says she in no way benefited from the deal. Although her son works in the offices of her Redondo Beach real estate agency, she says, he’s an independent contractor who does not share his commissions with her. “I got nothing out of this deal but grief,” Horrell said Tuesday.

Horrell initially voted with the council to approve a contract for Kirchhoff that allowed the city to lend the city manager up to $200,000 to help him buy a home. But when the city manager found a house and the council was called on to approve the purchase, Horrell abstained, citing a possible conflict of interest.

Still, DeLong doesn’t buy the explanation that no pressure was applied. “There must be 25 agents in the city of Redondo Beach,” she said Wednesday. “How else could it possibly be?”

TIMELY LUNCH: Maybe it was just coincidence. But when L.A. Mayor Tom Bradley visited the harbor area recently, one of the noisiest tenants--the Hugo Neu-Proler Co.--seemed awfully quiet. So quiet, in fact, one would hardly have noticed that the giant waterfront scrap yard was still in business.

Bradley’s two-hour tour on June 13 was aimed at learning more about the controversial plan to move another scrap yard, Hiuka America Corp., from San Pedro to Wilmington.

Wilmington skeptics, and there are plenty, claim that Hugo Neu-Proler shut down a noisy bulk loader in anticipation of the visit. That way, they say, the mayor wouldn’t notice the racket or metal dust blowing from the yard, which is just across the East Basin from Wilmington on Terminal Island.

“The scuttlebutt is that someone from the mayor’s office tipped off Hugo Neu that Bradley was coming,” said Claire Randall, a leader in the fight to oust Hugo Neu-Proler from Terminal Island and block Hiuka’s relocation.

The mayor’s office says no calls were made to the scrap company. And Hugo Neu-Proler asserts that although the yard may have closed for an hour, it only would have been for lunch. As for knowing beforehand about Bradley’s visit, Hugo Neu-Proler General Manager John Prudent said last week: “This is the first I’ve heard of it.”

CLICKETYCLACK: Wake up, South Bay, your train is leaving the station.

The warning comes from Jacki Bacharach, a member of the Rancho Palos Verdes City Council and the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission.

Bacharach is encouraging South Bay cities to challenge a commission plan to delay until 2014 construction of a leg of the Metro Rail Green Line deep into the South Bay.

Earlier plans by the panel called for work to start on the eight miles of track to south Torrance in the year 2000--just six years after Green Line service reaches El Segundo’s southern border.

“I think it’s up to South Bay cities to say 2014 is just not acceptable,” said Bacharach, who has brought the matter to the attention to the South Bay Assn. of Cities. “I don’t want them to sit around and just accept it.”

Commission staffers say the new schedule, part of a 30-year plan to go before the panel this summer, was drafted because there is less rail money and more competition for it than expected from throughout the Los Angeles area.

Said Brynn Kernaghan, a government affairs official with the commission: “It certainly has a chance to be changed back if (South Bay) people step forward and speak forcefully about it. But it will be tough because other communities are also pushing hard for their projects.”

LAST WEEK’S HIGHLIGHTS

* Carson: The City Council approved a contract with Western Waste Industries for exclusive commercial-industrial trash hauling. The council also named its Emergency Operations Center in memory of Harry T. Foisia, a former code enforcement and security manager and a high chief in the city’s Samoan community. Foisia, who spent many years working with troubled youth, died last December at the age of 38.

* Inglewood: At a special meeting on gangs Thursday, Inglewood Mayor Edward Vincent pledged to refund millions of dollars in taxes approved by voters in 1988 for 20 new police officers if the city fails to control the rising problem of gang violence. Vincent also unveiled a special citizen complaint anti-gang hot line--671-0236. It rings in his home and is picked up by an answering machine. Vincent will pass along the complaints.

* Lawndale: The City Council decided 3 to 2 that its meetings do not have to be held in the council chambers or even in the city, for that matter. Councilman Larry Rudolph, who objected to the ordinance, was concerned that without geographical limits, the meetings might be held too far afield.

* Lomita: The City Council approved a mandatory water-rationing plan that will penalize residents and businesses for not achieving 20% reduction goals. It takes effect next month.

* San Pedro: A San Pedro citizens panel recommended that 100-acre White Point Park be designated a so-called passive park that would not have permanent athletic facilities or lighted fields. If Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores, who represents the harbor area, agrees, that finding and others in the proposed master plan would go before the city’s Recreation and Parks Commission.

* Manhattan Beach: The City Council put off plans to remodel the city garage for office space in approving a $33-million budget. The $543,000 renovation was part of $661,740 in expenditures trimmed from the spending plan. Despite the cuts, City Manager Bill Smith said the city “continues to be in excellent fiscal health” and has avoided the hiring freezes, service reductions and tax increases imposed by other cities.

* Redondo Beach: The City Council approved a 4% increase in costs for a wide range of city services, including administrative fees and library charges, planning applications and permits, public works and public safety. The council also approved residents-only parking for the 400 and 500 blocks of Avenue F and the 800 block of Avenue A.

THIS WEEK’S HIGHLIGHTS

Hermosa Beach: The City Council to decide Tuesday on revisions to the city’s two-year budget, now in its second year. Up for consideration at the public hearing will be new fees and taxes and a number of spending cuts.

Inglewood: The City Council will consider a proposal Tuesday to donate $18,000 in seed money for a major gathering of Porsche owners in late October called the Inglewood-Porsche Driving Challenge. The Hollywood Park event would feature antique car shows, child go-cart races and a test track for Porsches. The council has its longest agenda in a decade, with 72 items for consideration.

Lawndale: The City Council will consider dozens of cost-cutting and revenue-enhancing alternatives, including a citywide utility tax that would raise $670,000, during a public hearing at 7:30 p.m. Monday on the $6.9-million 1991-92 operating budget.

Redondo Beach: The city Monday will dedicate its new mural, Whaling Wall XXXI, with a ceremony at 11 a.m. at the Southern California Edison generating station, North Harbor Drive and Marina Way. The towering mural depicts whales migrating against a bright blue background.

MEETINGS THIS WEEK

Gardena: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, 1700 W. 162nd St. 217-9565. Televised live on Channel 22 (Paragon) and repeated 7 p.m. on the two following Sundays.

Hawthorne: 7 p.m. Monday, 4455 W. 126th St. 970-7902. Televised on Channel 22 (Paragon) at 7 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday and 6 p.m. Saturday.

Hermosa Beach: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, 1315 Valley Drive. 318-0239. Televised live on Channel 3 (Multivision).

Inglewood: 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, 1 Manchester Blvd. 412-5280. No cable telecast.

Los Angeles: 10 a.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday at 200 N. Spring St., Los Angeles. In San Pedro, 548-7637; in Wilmington, 548-7586; in Harbor City/Harbor Gateway, 548-7664; in Westchester, 641-4717. Televised live on Channel 35; meetings repeated individually at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday and collectively on Sunday starting at 10 a.m.

Palos Verdes Estates: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, 340 Palos Verdes Drive West. 378-0383. No cable telecast.

Rolling Hills: 7:30 p.m. Monday, 2 Portuguese Bend Road. 377-1521. No cable telecast.

Rolling Hills Estates: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, 4045 Palos Verdes Drive North. 377-1577. Televised live on Channel 3 (Dimension).

Torrance: 7 p.m. Tuesday, 3031 Torrance Blvd. 618-5880. Televised live on Channel 22 (Paragon), and replayed at 10 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays, and at 10 a.m., 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.