Yaroslavsky Says He Won’t Run for Mayor : Politics: He cites the grueling hours that the job requires. His decision to seek reelection to the council puts the large mayoral field in sharper focus.

Los Angeles City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky on Wednesday said he will not run for mayor, removing another potentially strong contender from the race and drawing into sharper focus the large field battling to replace retiring Mayor Tom Bradley.

Yaroslavsky, 43, said he will run in April for a fifth full term on the City Council because he does not want to subject his family to a difficult mayoral campaign and the grueling hours in office that might follow.

“My decision was totally based on personal factors,” Yaroslavsky said during an interview in his office. “I want to protect my wife and my children and allow them to continue to have access to their father.”

Yaroslavsky’s decision leaves 19 who have declared that they will collect funds for the campaign--with official filing for the April primary to begin next month. Of the 19, nine have held posts in city and county government and 10 others are lesser known.

The Westside councilman’s decision not to run follows that of Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina, the front-runner in early polls, and City Councilman Richard Alatorre, a well-financed Eastside leader.

Only two other potential big-name contenders have not made their intentions clear--City Council President John Ferraro and former Gov. Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown Jr., although Brown has said he is “not likely” to run. Another well-known figure, actor and civic activist Edward James Olmos, said he is being urged to run but does not want to campaign or place his name on the ballot, although he would not discourage write-in votes.

Yaroslavsky’s decision was not a surprise to City Hall insiders or political analysts, who noted that he was not raising campaign funds like other serious contenders.

Those observers joined Yaroslavsky’s supporters in saying that the Westside councilman missed his best shot at the mayor’s office four years ago. Bradley was reeling from conflict-of-interest accusations in 1989 when he was nearly forced into a runoff by City Councilman Nate Holden, a lesser-known and more poorly financed contender.

But Yaroslavsky said at the time that Bradley could not be beaten and reiterated Wednesday that he had “no regrets, no second thoughts” about dropping out then.

He said he believed he would have a better chance of becoming mayor in 1993. “I don’t think there is any question that if I had gotten into it this time, I would have been a contender, if not the top contender,” Yaroslavsky said.

One early poll showed Yaroslavsky to be one of the best-known and best-liked of those mentioned for the mayor’s job. He also has a proven fund-raising record and a solid core of supporters, particularly among Jewish voters on the Westside and in the San Fernando Valley.

But Yaroslavsky said the 18-hour days that he would put into the office would take him away too frequently from his wife, Barbara, and their children, Mina, 15, and David, 10.

Friends in the past have said that Yaroslavsky also has shrunk from a mayoral campaign because he would have to give up his 5th District council seat and a $90,680 yearly salary, without immediate prospects for other employment. “Zev is a working guy. He has to live on that council salary,” said Steve Afriat, a campaign consultant and the councilman’s former chief deputy.

Yaroslavsky denied that he was staying on for the paycheck, saying he looks forward to serving on the council “as the city faces its greatest challenges.”

Yaroslavsky, chairman of the council’s influential Budget and Finance Committee, said steering Los Angeles through its financial crisis and attempting to increase the size of the Police Department will be the two foremost issues in the coming year.

“That means there are going to have to be tax increases and cuts in less essential services, or the city will go to hell in a handbasket,” Yaroslavsky said. He added that his exit from mayoral politics will permit him to act as a catalyst on issues and to “talk more freely because I don’t have to worry about whose toes I’m going to step on. I can call it as I see it.”

Several other mayoral hopefuls seized on Yaroslavsky’s announcement as a boon for their own fortunes.

Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Panorama City) said he hoped to pick up many of Yaroslavsky’s supporters in the Jewish and senior citizen communities. City Councilman Joel Wachs said he believes he will have the strongest appeal with those same groups. Councilman Michael Woo’s campaign manager, Vicky Rideout, said: “I think this means that the Westside is up for grabs and that Michael Woo will get a significant chunk of it.”

Yaroslavsky said he will “wait and see” how the mayoral field develops before deciding whether to make an endorsement. He will have a large field to choose from.

Joining Wachs and Woo, who have said they are in the running, and Katz, who is expected to declare soon, are six other current and former local government officials who have expressed an interest in being mayor. They are Holden; attorney and former Recreation and Parks Commissioner Richard J. Riordan; former Deputy Mayor Tom Houston; businessman and Los Angeles County Transportation Commissioner Nick Patsaouras; attorney and former Recreation and Parks Commissioner J. Stanley Sanders, and Julian Nava, a former school board member and onetime ambassador to Mexico.

Ten others have also declared that they are raising money for the mayor’s race: Rudy Mercado, Jack Slater, Brette X. New, Adam Bregman, John E. Bishop, Pyung Soon Im, Larry Green, Vicki Hufnagel, Joseph Vesalga and Walter Randall Bannister.

Political analysts said the field may be so large that it will take less than 20% of the vote to earn a spot in an expected June runoff.

As to his own plans, Yaroslavsky said he will focus on the City Council and his reelection effort, in which he is expected to face Westwood community activist and urban planner Laura Lake.

Although he has long expressed an interest in running for Congress, Yaroslavsky was not aided by last year’s redistricting, which failed to create a new seat on his turf.

He said he also does not expect to find Rep. Henry A. Waxman’s seat vacant anytime soon, although some news reports have said that the Los Angeles Democrat is in line for a Cabinet appointment from President-elect Bill Clinton.

“I am a key elected official in the second-largest city in the United States,” Yaroslavsky said. “I am comfortable with that role.”