DISTRICT 12 CANDIDATES TRADE BARBS OVER CLOSED SWIMMING POOL.

Byline: James Nash Staff Writer

NORTHRIDGE - Standing in front of a padlocked and empty city swimming pool, City Council candidate Julie Korenstein charged Friday that it symbolized the neglect her rival, longtime council deputy Greig Smith, has shown to the northwest San Fernando Valley.

Four days before the election in the bitterly contested 12th District race, Korenstein leveled the accusation during a news conference with supporters who said Smith has bankrolled a negative and deceitful campaign with donations from developers and other special interests.

Smith, the longtime deputy to 12th District Councilman Hal Bernson, held no media events Friday but, in an interview, accused Korenstein of distorting his record and attacking him because she lacks her own solutions to the closed pool and other local needs.

The rival candidates, who have clashed frequently since the March primary in which they emerged from a field of six candidates, are running for the seat Bernson must give up due to term limits.

At her news conference, Korenstein - a Los Angeles Unified School District board member for 16 years - assembled Democrats and Republicans, members of activist groups and people on both sides of last year's Valley secession campaign.

``I believe that Julie will listen to the community, and she's beholden to no special interests,'' said environmental activist Kim Thompson, the former president of the North Valley Coalition.

Smith's campaign consultant Mitch Englander called Korenstein ``a puppet of special interests,'' particularly United Teachers of Los Angeles, the union that has supported her in school board races.

Smith also has broad-based support, Englander said, including Assemblyman Keith Richman, R-Granada Hills, who placed first in the race for Valley mayor in the secession campaign, and City Council President Alex Padilla, who opposed secession.

Korenstein and Smith also traded charges over the swimming pool, which was closed in 2001 because of leakage and other damage. Korenstein said Bernson and Smith failed to secure funding to upgrade the pool from Proposition K, a $25 million measure for parks approved by city voters in 1996.

``This site is symbolic of the legacy of Council District 12's current administration,'' Korenstein said. ``The children of the Northwest Valley have simply not been served by taxpayers' Proposition K money.''

Smith said the pool repair was delayed after city workers were sent to fix relatively minor leakage and discovered major problems requiring the entire pool to be replaced. A citizens committee now is proposing designs for the new pool, and Smith said he hopes it can be finished next summer.

``I think we need to speed this up, definitely,'' he said. ``We can't afford to have this go on another summer.''