ELECTIONS / L.A. CITY COUNCIL : 5th District Hopefuls Pull Punches in Early Round

Like boxers testing each other in the first round, candidates for the 5th City Council seat met in debate Thursday but rarely challenged each other, concentrating instead on promoting their qualifications for the post.

Participating in the forum hosted by the Westwood Village Assn. were Barbara Yaroslavsky, wife of former Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky; Roberta Weintraub, a former school board president; Lea Purwin D’Agostino, a deputy district attorney; Jeff Brain, a Sherman Oaks realtor; Mike Feuer, the former head of a Westside legal services center, and Didacus Ramos, an urban planner.

Speaking to a crowd of about 150, D’Agostino emphasized her 17 years as a prosecutor and her work in convicting such criminals as Muharem Kurbegovic, the so-called “Alphabet Bomber,” who gave her the nickname “Dragon Lady.”

“I’m not afraid to change the status quo in City Hall and step on a few toes if I have to,” she said.

Weintraub talked about her 14 years on the Los Angeles Board of Education. Feuer said he managed a $3-million budget when he ran the Bet-Tzedek legal services center for eight years. Yaroslavsky cited her role in forming a Neighborhood Watch group and her long involvement with the Friends of Los Angeles Free Clinic. Brain noted his efforts to launch the Sherman Oaks Street Fair and the Sherman Oaks shuttle.

All of the candidates called for increased public safety, either by hiring more police officers or developing more Neighborhood Watch programs. Several pointed to crime as one of the top issues in the race.

“As I go door to door, in neighborhood after neighborhood throughout this district, I see people in fear,” said Feuer, a Harvard-educated lawyer. “Everybody has an anecdote about crime.”

To pay for more police and other city services, several candidates suggested cutting waste at City Hall. Some praised an effort by Councilman Joel Wachs to save $70 million by reorganizing the way the city purchases supplies and equipment. Brain advocated privatizing more city services, such as garbage collection--an idea that has been promoted by Mayor Richard Riordan.

D’Agostino took one of the few shots at the event with references to Yaroslavsky’s tie to her husband. “I’m not an incumbent, nor am I tied to any incumbent, so I can provide fresh ideas,” she said.

After the forum, Yaroslavsky--speaking with a weak, raspy voice from a bout with the flu--rejected suggestions that, if elected, she would be a figurehead controlled by her husband.

“If anyone is linked, it’s not me to him,” she said. “We have some of the same goals, including making it a business-safe city. But we have different approaches.”

The gathering heated up briefly at another juncture when Yaroslavsky said she believes the city is not vulnerable to an Orange County-style fiscal crisis because city officials do not make risky investments.

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Some candidates disagreed, saying that they would not assume the city is financially sound until they question financial officials and scrutinize the city’s investment policies.

“I don’t know that I would make that assumption that we are safe,” Weintraub said. “I haven’t talked to every single person, and until I do I wouldn’t make that statement.”

At that point, Ramos said he felt the other candidates were advocating “micro-managing” the city, rather than hiring competent managers and allowing them to run day-to-day operations.

“If the council is constantly interfering with the people doing their jobs, constantly asking them for other unnecessary reports, we are not going to get the job done,” he said.

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D’Agostino responded, saying she would accept no one’s word about whether the city’s finances are safe until she scrutinized the investments herself. “If that is called micro-managing, then so be it,” she said.

The 5th Council District stretches from Sherman Oaks to Westwood. For 19 years, the post was held by Zev Yaroslavsky, who resigned in December to take a seat on the County Board of Supervisors.

The primary elections is scheduled for April 11 and the general election June 6.