The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • Page 45

LOS ANGELES TIMES THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1994 B3 METRO NEWS LOCAL ELECTIONS SANTA MONICA CITY COUNCIL Rent Control Advocates Suffer Another Setback WATER DISTRICTS SCOTT HARRIS A Street i Perspective ion Prop. 187 Ifs been very worth it. All of us are on this planet to do good for somebody. Mike Huffington, on spending $28 million of hi own money In unsuccessful bM for U.S. Senate Dymally Minority Slate Wins Seats on 3 Boards Rights group still has 4-3 edge, but victory of public safety candidates reflects shift in voter mood.

And changes in the Legislature may undermine local law. By NANCY HILL-HOLTZMAN TIMES STAFF WRITER anta Monica, one of the most liberal cities in the nation, took a strong law-and-order stand Tuesday that does not bode well for the liberal rent control forces that have long dominated he was bundled up against the night I chill, a familiar figure waiting strategically between Times Mirror handles billions of dollars in contracts. The minority candidates say their presence will bring needed diversity to boards dominated almost exclusively by whites who represent urban communities that are home to large numbers of Latinos, African Americans and Asian Americans. "Water will never be the same," said Kenneth M. Orduna, Dymally's former chief of staff, who won reelection to the Water Replenishment District.

"The boards now reflect the populations they serve." Orduna, now the Water Replenishment District board president, became the first African American to join the board when he was elected four years ago. In Tuesday's election, the replenishment district gained a Latino, Susan Carrillo, who was not affiliated with Dymally. Two African Americans Mervyn Dymally's son, Mark, and Keith McDonald, son of Assemblywoman Juanita M. McDonald (D-Carson) were elected to the West Basin board. Both defeated white incumbents.

Two other Dymally-backed candidates, Richard Mayer and Charles M. Trevino, were elected to the five-member Central Basin district board. Dymally candidate Clarence Wong, a member of the Water Replenishment District board, lost his bid for reelection. The three water board elections, which usually are sedate affairs, attracted 30 candidates. Much of the campaigning was heated.

Some incumbents accused Mervyn Dymally of trying to stack the financially potent boards with his cronies. Critics also said the minority candidates were more interested in financial gain than social justice, noting that three board members of the Water Replenishment Districtall with ties to the elder Dymally voted themselves hefty car allowances and approved a lobbying contract for a business associate of the former congressman. But the minority candidates accused the incumbents of raising smoke screens to avoid talking about the real issues in the campaign, including the diversity of representation, the agencies' finances and the structure of water rates. By DUKE HELFAND TIMES STAFF WRITER A coalition of minority candidates has captured seats on three obscure but powerful water boards, giving the challengers a foothold in an industry that for years has been the domain of whites. The minority candidates, all affiliated with the political machine of former Rep.

Mervyn Dymally, won five of eight seats they sought on the Central and West Basin municipal water districts and the Water Replenishment District of Southern California. The agencies store and distribute water for more than 70 communities stretching from Malibu to Long Beach and inland to East Los Angeles and Pico Rivera. The candidates say their victories signal a profound change in water politics, where boards control multimillion-dollar budgets in virtual obscurity. The West and Central districts collectively spend about $10 million a month on construction programs and send six representatives to the powerful Metropolitan Water District board, which Square and the biggest employee parking garage. She wore a white baseball cap and a friendly smile.

She extended her hand. Her voice was a raspy whisper, but it was i impossible to make out the words. I used to be a soft touch for panhandlers, but the years have made me more circumspect. These days, I'm more wary that my loose change supports a crack or liquor habit. Trial and error has taught me that to ignore a beggar, to walk past this woman as if she didn't exist, would insult both her dignity and mine.

So I usually say no, or at least shake my head. This time I reached into my pocket. Why I'm not sure, but a few minutes earlier, I watched Gov. Wilson on TV, aglow with I victory as he praised California's generosity of spirit. I gave the woman a few coins.

Felt like two quarters and a dime. "God bless you," she rasped, giving a tiny bow of her head. "God bless you." city politics. Only one of three candidates backed by the rent control political organization was elected to the City Council. Even worse for the group, Santa Monicans for Renters Rights (SMRR), its rising political star, Tony Vazquez, was turned out of office after being attacked as anti-public safety by the city's police union.

"The election was a referendum on SMRR's public safety and homeless policies," said Councilman Robert T. Holbrook, the top vote-getter in a field of 11 candidates. But SMRR co-chair Nancy Greenstein portrayed Vazquez as a casualty of the statewide tide of conservatism and predicted that SMRR would regroup and rebound two years from now. Though SMRR still holds a 4-3 edge on the council, Vazquez's defeat is the latest in a series of blows suffered by the political group this year. They include the loss of voters whose apartment units were knocked out by the earthquake in January and a nearly successful effort in the state Legislature to weaken the group's strong rent-control law, which will be renewed this year.

In the council election, Holbrook and second-place finisher Ruth Ebner, a Los Angeles deputy city attorney, won with support from a coalition called Citizens for a Safe Santa Monica. Their one-two finish is the first time since 1986 that non-rent control-, backed candidates took the top two spots in a council election. Holbrook and Ebner were also endorsed by the Santa Monica Police Officers Assn. The police union's entire slate, including SMRR-backed urban planner Pam O'Connor, was swept into office. The victory for the police slate, which emphasized public safety, culminated several years of political angst over the beach city's large homeless population and its effect on public safety and quality of life.

Ironically, a bloc of three SMRR-supported council members has voted to enact a series of public safety measures to address the problems, but the public was apparently unsatisfied by the effort. Unlike previous outings, SMRR started its fall election effort in a weakened condition. The North-ridge earthquake damaged or destroyed thousands of rental units, cutting into SMRR's voter base. About 1,400 units remain out of commission, with an uncertain future. Others have been fixed, but rents champion of rent control who has in past years killed the bill in the Judiciary Committee, is also retiring.

The narrow defeat of the bill, coupled with the changing face of the Legislature due to term limits, indicates that it may be only a matter of time until a measure that would weaken Santa Monica's law passes. To forestall that, SMRR needed a strong showing by like-minded Democrats in legislative races across the state and the election of Kathleen Brown as governor. She was viewed as more likely to veto an anti-rent control measure than Gov. Pete Wilson. Sponsors of the vacancy decontrol measure say they plan to reintroduce it in the Legislature next year.

"It's our best shot ever," said Robert Sullivan, spokesman for the Apartment Assn. of Greater Los Angeles. have been raised to pay for the repairs. Another 3,000 rental units have been lost over the past several years under a program that allows apartment buildings to convert to condominiums. But the greatest threat to the long-range viability of Santa Monica's strict rent control group comes from Sacramento.

There, landlords and real estate interests have been pressing for a measure that would weaken the local law. This year, a bill to that effect came within one vote of passing the Legislature. That measure, which would have allowed rents in vacated units to rise to market levels, was defeated by one vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee viewed as the only stumbling block to its passage. The deciding vote was cast by state Sen. Art Torres (D-Los Angeles), who leaves office at the end of the year.

State Sen. David A. Roberti (D-Van Nuys), a MARTINEZ: Fear and Proposition 187 3m mmlw I 7 "WM.y )f 'hi 7 Vy 1 Her name is Jamilah. She is 46 years old and black. In Downtown L.A., most street people are African Americans, the descendants of the only group of immigrants I who came to this land against their will.

I was nearly to my car when it occurred to me that, especially on Election Day, everybody has a certain expertise. Some 1 spin doctors get paid big money to talk on TV. It seemed fair that Jamilah's was entitled an extra dollar. We exchanged names and pleasantries. 1 Jamilah said she lived in San Francisco for years before and owned "a bead store" I before coming south for a change of scenery.

She arrived in Los Angeles two years ago, and on her first night in town, somebody broke into her room down by the Greyhound station and took everything she had. Jamilah said she's been homeless ever since, relying on strangers she regards as friends. "Six thousand people work here," she said, looking up at the edifice of Times Mirror I Square. "Everybody here knows Jamilah. Everybody likes Jamilah.

They're real nice tome." i She said she doesn't collect welfare, but gets by on handouts. "Sometimes I sleep around the corner, in the alley with the rest of my comrades," she said, still smiling. "Sometimes I get enough money to get a room." A girlfriend, she explained, lives at the St. George Hotel. For $7, the manager lets Jamilah stay with her friend.

Her eyes were watery. There was no tell-tale smell on her breath, but it was still my duty to ask the pertinent questions. Jamilah assured me that, no, she doesn't have a problem with liquor or drugs. Her only medication, she said, is for asthma. Jamilah laughed when asked whether she had a history of mental problems.

"You're talking to me. Does it seem like I do?" No, it didn't. In this superficial encounter, Jamilah just seemed eccentric. In any case, I just wanted her insights, her opinions, on Tuesday's ballot. Jamilah didn't vote, but she was glad to I hear that Proposition 187 was winning big.

"There are a lot of people here that need medical help and schooling," she said. "I feel they should vote yes and send them back." Like many people, Jamilah equated "illegal immigrants" with Mexicans, and she blamed them for taking jobs from African Americans. Mexicans, she said, are willing to work for lower wages. But even at equal pay, she said, employers would prefer to hire Mexicans "because they're a lighter color." Jamilah's platform, not unlike President Clinton's, calls for welfare reform too. That way, she explained, "people would get jobs and the women would stop having so many babies." We weren't going to solve all of America's problem this night, but Jamilah had a suggestion on how to start: "Treat everybody equal." Fate, of course, doesn't treat everybody equal.

Nobody gets to pick their parents. Some are blessed by accident of birth and some are not. Some have $28 million to pursue their own ambitions and some scrounge for $7 to buy a roof each night. Jamilah didn't know much about Mike Huffington, perhaps because she doesn't see much TV. She was rooting for Kathleen Brown and especially Dianne Feinstein.

"She was a good mayor of San Francisco i when I was there." It was at this point that Jamilah spotted an intruder. He was about 25 years old, able-bodied and black. He said he needed 75 cents for the bus. Jamilah lit into him. "Oh, you are really disrespectful!" she scolded.

"I'm begging here myself! I'm begging here!" The young man shrugged and went on his way. She didn't ask, but I gave Jamilah another dollar. Continued from Bl Asians, Indians and others have felt the sting of response to societal anguish. We tortured heretics and burned witches to combat the fear of things we couldn't see, then turned blindly on each other in an effort to destroy the dangers we thought we could see. In the brief life of this nation, we have singled out a whole array of racial and ethnic minorities to abuse and ultimately blame for every evil that has befallen us.

And now, through the disquieting alchemy of social decision, it's the turn of illegal Latino immigrants to take their licks. They're easy targets' and, we thought, they can't fight back. We blamed them for the escalating crime rate, for deteriorating neighborhoods and, when the economy went to hell, for unemployment, rising taxes and the crushing burden of welfare programs. Another kind of fear was walking our cities, and it may have been the most insidious of all: the fear of finding ourselves jobless, hungry and in the streets. The cry to "Save Our State" was the cry of decent people frightened by the cascading evils and uncertainties of our time.

They're the same people who voted for the "three strikes" measure and who, in frustration, threw congressional incumbents out the door in an effort to right what seemed so terribly wrong. Among their supporters were Latinos in this country legally who, conditioned by the same fears, turned on their brothers and sisters in order to protect -their own islands of security in a sea of uncertainty. But 187 was an ill-conceived response to fear and despair, and, predictably, attracted pack dogs of hatred who sensed an acceptance of their malevolent ethnic phobias. I My mailbox was full of their invective-filled messages all during the campaign, and my telephone answering machine ran out of space to record their vicious, and frequently obscene, comments. Their targets, contrary to Pete Wilson's expedient logic, had gone beyond illegal immigrants and had settled on anyone whose surname suggested their heritage was rooted in countries beyond our southern borders.

What I hope was my last telephone call from any pf them came sometime after the projection of 187's sad triumph. It trumpeted the victory of white America over those of us who would pollute the cultural bloodstream. GERARD BURKHART For The Times North Hollywood High student Pedro Del Valle had his Mexican flag confiscated at Monday demonstration. FLAGS: Did Foreign Symbol Hurt Cause? Continued from Bl "It pisses me off," said the former Marine, who owns eight flag stores across Los Angeles County. "You see these kids walking down the street with a Mexican flag and demanding that this country give them a free education.

It aggravates people." "The biggest mistake the opposition made was waving those green and white flags with the snake on it," said former Immigration and Naturalization Service Director Harold Ezell, who helped write Proposition 187. "They should have been waving the American flag." As Election Day neared, some Latino opposition leaders tried to minimize the impact of the foreign flags by passing out Old Glory at anti-187 demonstrations. Still, the Mexican flags continued to wave. Some were bought for the occasion at roadside swap meets. Others had been saved after last summer's raucous World Cup festivities, or from recent celebrations surrounding the boxing victories by Mexican Julio Cesar Chavez all by people who clung to the flag more as a family crest than a political weapon.

"Why should we carry American flags when this country wants to kick my friends out of school and send them back to Mexico?" demanded Mariela Flores, a 15-year-old Huntington Park sophomore who marched in two student walkouts. "We carry Mexican flags because they give us pride in where we come from." The Mexican flags were a "symbolic clinging to self-pride," said Lloyd Monserratt, an aide to Los Angeles school board member Vicki Castro and confidant to some of the protesting students. "There was an acknowledgment that there may be a backlash, but much of this was just a spontaneous expression of pride." To many Californians, that pride felt like rejection. "Flags are images that appeal directly to people's emotions, and patriotism is a fairly deep bond that people feel," said Brian Stonehill, who directs a media studies program at Pomona College in Claremont. "The problem with waving the Mexican flag is while it rallied people of Mexican heritage, it alienated the mainstream American voter.

It was like preaching to the converts instead of reaching across to address the mainstream, whose votes they needed. "The Mexican flag may be fine for a sports event, like the World Cup, but they should not have chosen that symbol when they were preparing for an election. This is not like a sports event it's decided by the emotions of the people in the stands, not on the field. And those people in the stands felt their sense of national pride was being violated." UCLA professor David Hayes-Bautista, who heads the Center for the Study of Latino Health, reached even deeper for meaning. "I think what these people were expressing is the desire to maintain the values that Latinos use to define themselves their connection on a cultural level," he said.

"When people are challenged as the campaign for Proposition 187 challenged the image of Latinos with its TV ads showing them sneaking across the border in the dark it pushes them in a corner, forces them to ask, 'Who am "I can see why some of them would wrap themselves in the Mexican flag. An unfortunate choice of a symbol, maybe, but people should not misread it as a declaration of separation." Special correspondent Simon Romero contributed to this story. i i I'm afraid of crime too. I'm afraid for the safety of those I love dearly and for the welfare of the community in which I live. I'm also afraid that 187 will open the door to an erosion of humanity not witnessed in this country since the ugly days of black repression.

Barring children from school due to their immigration status isn't a lot different than barring them from a restaurant because of their color. I am also afraid that Latinos will respond with unbridled rage to a proposition steeped in the kinds of dehumanizing barriers that amount to a cultural insiiltJ There is no guarantee that their rage will be confined to the courts, and not spread to the streets. Proposition 187 has already succeeded in creating divisions that didn't exist. One can only hope we are not carried to disaster by the shrill rhetoric of those who sought easy answers in a hateful referendum. We have been punished by our own fears, and the impact of that punishment may linger for generations to v' come.

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