L.A. ELEVATOR DILEMMA REMAINS STUCK; CITY HALL STRUGGLES WITH PROBLEMATIC LIFT SYSTEM.

Byline: Deborah Sullivan Daily News Staff Writer

Efforts to fix City Hall elevators have been as creakingly slow and maddening as the elevators themselves, Los Angeles municipal employees and city officials say.

City Hall's sluggish elevators keep would-be riders waiting for up to 10 minutes, leaving crowds of harried, grumbling employees in the lobby.

The passenger cars skip floors, reverse directions unexpectedly and sometimes shudder to a grinding halt in midride.

Meanwhile, an executive elevator - accessible only to elected officials and their top staffers - remains off-limits to the public and is rarely used even by the political top dogs for whom it's intended.

The problems started last summer when the agency installed a $360,000 ``upgrade'' to the elevator dispatch system.

``Something's not functioning correctly with that system,'' said Randall Bacon, general manager of the General Services Agency. ``We had the contractor fly someone from back East here. And they can't figure out what's wrong with it.''

Employees headed for lower floors often wait helplessly as dozens of upward-bound elevators stop for them while downward-bound cars sail past without stopping.

Some workers have to ride all the way up to the 18th floor before going down to the parking level. Some insist that by pushing the down button they can hasten a ride up.

Bacon said the agency is negotiating with the contractor, Montgomery KONE, to fix or replace the system, but does not know when that will be done.

He argued that the system, when functioning, will be efficient enough that the executive elevator won't be needed. But council members don't want to wait that long.

On Wednesday, Councilman Joel Wachs proposed opening the executive elevator to the public to speed up the entire system.

``The rest are running poorly enough that with the private elevator set aside, there's not enough elevators to meet the demand,'' Wachs complained.

``There's also no reason why all the others are so bad. We've gotten to where we can send people to the moon. Why can't we get the elevators to run in City Hall?''

The council sent Wachs' proposal to the council's committee on Information Technology and General Services - the same panel where Councilwoman Laura Chick's identical motion has languished since she made it eight months ago.

When Chick proposed opening the executive elevator last July, the General Services Agency reported that it would take $42,000 to make the car public and still preserve the ability to convert it to executive use in emergencies. Her motion was also sent to the General Services committee, and has not emerged since.

Wachs inquired with Montgomery KONE and learned it would cost $14,521 to convert the elevator - about one-third the cost of the previous estimate. But his motion floundered nonetheless.

Council President John Ferraro, who voted to send the item to committee, called for a comprehensive elevator study from Bacon.

``Freeing up one isn't going to fix it,'' said Gayle Johnson, Ferraro's press deputy. ``He has to get them all in working order.''

Exasperated, Chick recently posted petitions throughout City Hall asking fed-up employees to call for conversion of the executive elevator.

David Chiu, a senior clerk with the City Clerk's Office, signed the plea, calling the elevators time-consuming and frustrating.

Chiu was one of only a handful who signed, though. Chick conceded that many employees mistook the petition, which bears no sponsor name, for a prank.

But she sees the off-limits elevator as a serious matter.

``It is symbolic to me of gross inefficiency, the death of common sense and extreme selfishness,'' Chick said.