ACTIVISTS SPLIT ON CHOICES FOR REFORM PANEL.

Byline: Jeannette DeSantis Daily News Staff Writer

A meeting intended to build consensus for City Hall reform resulted in anything but agreement Saturday when community leaders became deeply divided over who should run for an elected charter reform commission.

Common Cause, a nonprofit group that seeks to make government more responsive to residents, staged the meeting in the hope of building consensus among Los Angeles residents as they prepare for the coming campaign to elect a panel that will work on reforming the city's 71-year-old charter.

``I personally would like to not work on any reform until we decide which direction we are headed,'' said Harry Coleman, president of the North Hills Community Coordinating Council.

Voicing the concerns of many San Fernando Valley homeowners, Coleman said it was unclear to him whether the charter reform effort would result in greater empowerment of local communities.

``I would suggest the Valley have their own slate of candidates or at least general ground rules of what they want out of charter reform,'' he said. ``What the Valley wants is probably different than what San Pedro wants.''

About 50 residents from homeowners groups and community organizations across the city attended the meeting at the Cahuenga branch of the Los Angeles Public Library in anticipation of a campaign for voter approval of Mayor Richard Riordan's charter reform initiative, which is expected to be on the April 8 ballot.

In the same election, voters are expected to be able to elect 15 members to the commission who would be empaneled if the charter reform initiative passes.

A federal judge has ordered the City Council to place the charter reform initiative on the April ballot and to approve a method of electing commissioners that does not violate the federal Voting Rights Act by disenfranchising any minority groups.

But the council, which empaneled its own appointed charter reform commission in November and is locked in a power struggle with the mayor over charter reform, has postponed action until Tuesday.

Community leaders at Saturday's meeting said they were concerned about the competing interests of the mayor and council and fearful that City Hall politics will overshadow efforts to make city government more responsive.

``We have two distinct bodies with two charter reform packages,'' said Harry Coleman, president of the North Hills Community Coordinating Council. ``But how does any of this help the San Fernando Valley?''

Gerald A. Silver, president of the Homeowners of Encino, argued that candidates for the mayor's charter reform commission should not be connected to the City Council's charter panel.

``You cannot serve more than one master,'' he said. ``This should be an independent slate. If you are on one of those other panels, I don't want any part of that candidate.''

Silver, on the other hand, is apprehensive about the mayor using charter reform to pursue his own political agenda. ``I don't want to see this thing get hijacked by the mayor,'' he said.

Meanwhile, state Sen. Tom Hayden, D-Los Angeles, who announced his candidacy for mayor Saturday evening, accused Riordan of trying to manipulate the reform process by financially endorsing candidates who support his charter reform initiative.

``The mayor has a philosophy that money buys power,'' Hayden said. ``He is going to pump a million dollars into his slate of candidates that will carry on his agenda.''

During the meeting, Hayden asked any residents to disclose if they have been contacted by the mayor for a possible endorsement.

None responded affirmatively.

Also at the meeting was former deputy mayor Michael Keeley, who defended the mayor's right to endorse community leaders who he thinks represent their neighborhoods.

``The mayor wants lots of people to run,'' Keeley said. ``Right now there are half a dozen people in this room that are on the mayor's list of 25 people who he is considering for the commission.''

But many residents at the meeting said the mayor should endorse their handpicked candidates and not pick and choose candidates who support his initiative.

Keeley assured the crowd that the mayor has vowed to abstain from appointing residents to the commission and only endorse them financially.

``The mayor has raised a significant amount of money. How that money is spent and who he backs is still up in the air,'' Keeley said.

Keeley declined to give the exact amount Riordan has raised, citing the reporting deadline of Jan. 31.

On Friday, the Los Angeles City Council postponed putting the mayor's elected charter reform initiative on the April ballot pending a clarification of the ruling of federal Judge Mariana Pfaelzer.

Pfaelzer ruled two weeks ago that the charter reform commission should not be elected at-large because that violates the federal Voting Rights Act prohibition against diluting the vote of minorities.

The judge left it to the council to decide whether commissioners should be elected by council district or other means.

The council also put off a closed session in which legal strategy was to be discussed. Some council members attacked Keeley and said Riordan was ``buying a charter reform commission.''

A majority of the council indicated that they may try a last legal effort to keep the initiative off the ballot.

Also at the meeting was former U.S. Congresswoman Bobbi Fiedler, whose husband, Paul Clarke, an appointee to the City Council's Charter Reform Commission, passed away less than two weeks ago.

Fiedler said the hastily arranged meeting left a lot of unknowns, but one thing she is certain of is the political involvement of most residents in attendance.

``There isn't a person in that room that hasn't worked closely with their City Council representative,'' the veteran congresswoman who represented the Valley for six years in the 1980s said. ``There is no such thing as a virgin in the political arena.''