Holden Enjoys Valley Engagement, but Audience Prefers Divorce

Nate Holden’s arguments against San Fernando Valley secession drew hoots and howls from an audience of 150 Toluca Lake homeowners this week, but the combative council member seemed to enjoy entering the fray.

Holden was outnumbered on the dais too. The other panelists were all secession advocates--County Supervisor Mike Antonovich, former Assemblywoman Paula L. Boland and Sherman Oaks homeowner leader Richard Close.

Outspoken as always, Holden drew audience ire when he dissed the Valley’s economy and claimed that the street outside the Honeybaked Ham restaurant on Riverside Drive, where the meeting was held, was clean.

That latter comment drew jeers as residents complained bitterly about what they said was the pitiful condition of streets in the area.

Holden also held forth on stinky Valley sewage, which flows through his South L.A. district on the way to the Hyperion treatment plant. Any new city would have to build an expensive new treatment plant to deal with waste, he said.

“It is one city below ground,” he said.

Holden said tax money from the Central City paid for the Valley’s infrastructure when it was developed, so it’s only fair for Valley tax money to help poorer areas today.

All this, mind you, from someone who says his position on Valley secession is: “Be my guest.”

After the debate, Holden said he enjoyed the role of contrarian.

He said secessionists had a misapprehension about divorcing Los Angeles. “They think if they incorporate and become a city, all their problems will go away.”

At that point, Van Nuys resident Prudy Schults had had enough.

“Nate, I’m getting sick listening to you and your [nonsense],” Schults said with a smile. “You’ve got to learn more about the Valley before you make these statements.”

Fall Guy

Poor Leonard Shapiro gets no respect. Last month, the political gadfly from Granada Hills took a tumble while giving a tour of the downtown Civic Center to a group of schoolkids.

Shapiro, a retiree who regularly critiques the Los Angeles City Council, was knocked unconscious and broke five ribs when he slipped and fell into an empty fountain in the Triforium above the Los Angeles Mall.

On Tuesday, Shapiro made his first appearance before the council since his accident.

One might expect that in this litigious society, he would have shown up with a lawyer and a multimillion-dollar lawsuit.

Not Shapiro. Instead, he tried to warn the council about the faulty fountain design.

“I’m not going to sue the city because these fountains are not fenced,” he said. “But I sure wish someone would take a hand at making sure the dangerous situation at the Triforium is taken care of.”

But before he could finish his next sentence, Council President John Ferraro cut him off.

“Thank you. The next speaker is. . . .”

Another example of how no good deed goes unpunished.

Randy Who?

Republican businessman Randy Hoffman is hardly a household name in the 24th Congressional District, but he’s starting to get acquainted.

That’s because Hoffman is doing groundwork for a run for Congress in the district won by Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks) in November.

Today, Hoffman is scheduled to get together with the folks at the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy to demonstrate the $7,000 of high-tech tracking devices his company donated.

The equipment, provided by Hoffman-owned Magellan Systems of San Dimas, will be used to protect endangered species, fight fires and mark trails.

A couple of weeks ago, Hoffman was seen at a backyard gathering of prominent Republicans organized to meet Dave Stirling, a GOP candidate for state attorney general.

William Westmiller of Thousand Oaks is also running in the GOP primary in the 24th.

Hoffman, 43, also a Thousand Oaks resident, is married and has four children. Hoffman is a political novice but he looks good on paper, partially because he has the bucks to self-fund a campaign.

The GOP challenger can expect big bucks from the national party in the district, which is on the Republican list of the top 10 seats it plans to take from Democrats.

Toy company executive Richard Sybert nearly knocked off longtime Rep. Anthony Beilenson in this West Valley-Thousand Oaks swing district in 1994.

Like the 1994 election, next year is an off-presidential year, which favors the GOP candidate because Republicans are more faithful voters than Democrats.

Sherman is taking nothing for granted. He maintains an exhaustive schedule attending events in the district. Later this year, Sherman plans to hold town hall meetings and have drop-in office hours at local malls.

As for his potential opponent, Sherman said, “When somebody said Randy Hoffman is running against you, I said, ‘Randy who?’ ”

No More Megans

Sherman this week introduced legislation to establish a national hotline that would let people know if a registered sexual predator has moved into their neighborhood.

The program is the next logical step after Megan’s Law, named after a girl murdered by a known sex offender, Sherman said.

Megan’s Law requires states to notify communities when a convicted molester moves into the area after being released from prison.

California’s database was launched recently, but Sherman said it isn’t enough. A national database would offer information on sexual predators who move from state to state.

The bill is cosponsored by 26 members of Congress, including local Reps. Howard P. “Buck” McKeon (R-Santa Clarita) and Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley).

Double Trouble

First, there was charter reform. Now, there is reform of charter reform.

Over the past year, Mayor Richard Riordan and the City Council have fought over the best way to rewrite the 72-year-old charter.

They could not agree, so they helped create rival panels. The council appointed most members of one panel, which will recommend changes to the council.

Another was elected, mostly with funding from Riordan, with the power to put its recommendations directly before city voters.

So far, the cost of campaigning for, creating and staffing the two panels exceeds $3 million.

The irony is that on Monday, Nick Pacheco, a member of the elected panel, will introduce a motion to unite the two.

“My fear is that if there are two competing proposals before the voters, no one wins,” said Pacheco, a deputy district attorney.

Under his plan, the two panels would rewrite the charter together. If both panels agree on the revisions, they could put the new charter directly before voters, without council review.

Although Pacheco says he has the support of two other panel members, Janice Hahn and Erwin Chemerinsky, there may be opposition.

Winning approval from both panels may not be easy. Some elected members are very hostile toward the appointed panel.

The City Council might go along, though, now that most of Riordan’s handpicked candidates were rejected by the voters.

Courting Disaster

Almost $11 million has been spent on the Antelope Valley courthouse, but there’s nothing to show for it--not even a set of plans.

And that’s just one of the county’s eight unbuilt courthouses that have cost $80 million and counting.

Wondering what the problem is, Assemblyman George Runner (R-Lancaster) got the Joint Legislative Audit Committee’s approval to study the matter.

Runner is especially interested in the answer because he’s sponsoring a bill on behalf of the county to identify stable funding to build courthouses.

So he wants to know whether the state funding system is at fault or whether bureaucratic bungling caused the delays.

And speaking of bureaucracy, state auditing officials said the study will require 2,300 hours of work and cost $138,000. That’s without travel costs, of course.

County Breakup

Runner had a good week in Sacramento. Despite opposition from the same Los Angeles state senators who don’t like the Valley secession bills, Runner’s measure to study whether Los Angeles County should be split passed 23 to 11 Thursday.

It now moves back to the Assembly for concurrence on Senate amendments, then on to the governor for his approval.

The bill sets up a commission to look at the fiscal condition of the county and whether it delivers services efficiently. It will also assess whether dividing the county would benefit taxpayers.

Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) presented Runner’s bill. Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Los Angeles) spoke in favor of it. Sen. Herschel Rosenthal (D-Los Angeles) voted no, as did Senate President Pro Tem Bill Lockyer (D-Hayward).

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QUOTABLE: “Ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma” City Councilman Rudy Svorinich, imitating the sound of a throttled-down leaf blower at a council meeting.