BALLOT TO BRING CHANGES; KEY RACES AT STAKE IN ELECTION TUESDAY.

Byline: Rick Orlov and Yvette Cabrera Daily News Staff Writers

Although many voters have just two items on the ballot Tuesday, a lot is at stake in Los Angeles municipal elections.

Everyone in the city will get to vote on Proposition 1, the $744 million public safety bond measure for police and fire buildings, and the Los Angeles Community College board of trustees, which has four of its seven seats up for election in at-large districts.

Only part of the city will get to vote on the most important single question: reform of the Los Angeles Unified School District with four of the seven seats at stake.

In an unprecedented attack on the school board, Mayor Richard Riordan has put together a $2 million campaign chest behind his reform slate of Caprice Young, Mike Lansing, Genethia Hayes and incumbent David Tokofsky. The Young and Tokofsky districts include parts of the San Fernando Valley.

A majority of the City Council's 15 seats also are on the ballot with most attention focused on the Northeast Valley's 7th District and East Los Angeles' 14th District, which are wide-open contests without incumbents.

In the 7th District, six candidates are on the ballot and two others are running write-in campaigns for the remaining two years in the unexpired term of former Councilman Richard Alarcon, who was elected to the state Senate last year. A candidate must get a majority of votes to avoid a June 8 runoff.

While the 7th District candidates' debates have been polite, the tenor of the campaign has grown more vicious as the two top fund-raisers - Alex Padilla, a state Assembly deputy, and Corrine Sanchez, who heads a community service organization - stepped up attacks on one another's experience and record.

Sanchez, 52, has served as executive director of the health services organization El Proyecto del Barrio in Arleta. She has criticized Padilla for not having experience to lead the district.

Padilla, 26, has questioned Sanchez's commitment to the community and described her as a carpetbagger. Although she has lived in the Valley since 1971, she moved from her home in Panorama City, two blocks outside the 7th District, to a new home in Sylmar to qualify for the race.

The other candidates on the ballot are engineer Raul Godinez II, former mayor of San Fernando; youth services director Tony Lopez; governmental relations director Ollie McCaulley, and Barbara Perkins, a community college executive assistant.

The other open seat is in the 14th District, where beleaguered Councilman Richard Alatorre stepped down after 14 years on the council.

Thirteen candidates are vying to replace him in the district that stretches from Eagle Rock to Boyle Heights.

The leading candidates, based on money and endorsements, are considered to be community organizer Victor Griego, Deputy District Attorney Nick Pacheco, engineer Luis Cetina and county Commissioner Alvin D. Parra.

For Riordan and supporters of Proposition 1, the bond measure that needs two-thirds approval to pass, the two council districts also are considered important - particularly the San Fernando Valley's 7th District.

The reason is the Valley council contest has generated higher voter interest than the races in other areas and is expected to drive up voter turnout. Also, the Valley traditionally has a higher number of voters and, two years ago, for the first time accounted for better than half the votes cast in a municipal election.

Mike Monasmith, who is coordinating the Proposition 1 campaign, said the final mailings on behalf of the measure will focus on the Valley.

It also is in the Valley where the most organized opposition has developed, partly because of the secession effort.

A group called No Bonds Now formed last week with many secession activists and homeowner groups questioning the timing of the measure and its cost.

Fighting skepticism

Riordan and other officials have attempted to overcome skepticism from past bond measures by spelling out guarantees on what will be built - including one replacement police station, one new police station and six fire stations in the Valley alone. The measure also would fund construction of a new police headquarters downtown and other police and fire facilities across the city.

Borrowing from the Proposition BB school bond measure, Proposition 1 also would have two oversight committees, one of city officials and the second of citizens with expertise in construction matters. Two of the five citizen commissioners would come from the Valley.

If approved, the bond measure would add $32 a year to the property tax bill on the average $160,000 home.

In other city races, six incumbent council members are seeking re-election to what will be their last term due to term limits.

Councilman Nate Holden in the Mid-City 10th District has been engaged in a tough race against the Rev. Madison Shockley, with the two trading heated words.

Holden has insisted he will win outright, but others say he could be forced into a runoff depending on the votes for two other candidates in that race, employment development specialist Scott Suh and Marsha Brown, a businesswoman and family counselor.

Valley-area races

In Valley-area races, Councilman Joel Wachs is facing three opponents in his district, which runs from Studio City to Sun Valley. They are business owner Kathy P. Anthony, retired city worker John Bunte and marketing-youth director John Spishak.

Councilman John Ferraro, whose district includes a portion of North Hollywood and stretches to Hancock Park and Hollywood, is facing only one challenger, construction supervisor Benjamin Lucas.

Councilman Hal Bernson, in the Northwest Valley, is being challenged by four opponents. They are business manager Howard Nussbaum, retired civil servant David Guzman, attorney Charles Rubel and journalist-homemaker Marilyn Stout.

Other incumbents up for re-election are Councilwoman Ruth Galanter and Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas.

In the school board races, the biggest factor has been Riordan.

Making no secret of his anger with the school district's management, Riordan formed a political action committee, called Coalition for Kids, that raised and spent nearly $2 million in the campaign to oust incumbents Barbara Boudreaux, Jeff Horton and George Kiriyama.

He is supporting Genethia Hayes, head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Los Angeles, against Boudreaux; Young, an IBM executive and former Riordan aide, against Horton; Lansing, a child development specialist out of San Pedro, against Kiriyama, and Tokofsky against Yolie Flores Aguilar, a member of the county Board of Education.

The mayor's involvement has raised complaints that he was attempting to buy a school board to do his bidding, but he has said he is trying to see members elected who would not micromanage the school district.

Community colleges

At the Community College District, the largest field is for the seat vacated with the election of Gloria Romero to the state Assembly.

Candidates include community college instructor Nancy Pearlman, college lecturer Richard Groper, business owner Marilyn Grunwald, the Rev. Addie Miller, doctor of education Evelyn Metoyer-Williams, businessman Peter Ford, education commissioner Gilbert Carrasco, educator Sesar Cerreno, college professor Maria Calanche and college teacher Sylvia Scott-Hayes.

The other open seat, vacated by David Lopez-Lee, has two candidates. They are former school board member Warren Furutani and businessman Mark Isler.

Incumbent trustee Julia Wu faces opposition from community college professor Mona Field and educator Jules S. Bagneris III.

Incumbent trustee Georgia Mercer, who was appointed to the board, is opposed by medical educator Gordon Murley and businessman Jonathan Leonard.