TIPOFF COUNCIL DISPOSES WITH OPPOSITION TO BAG CHARGE.

Byline: RICK ORLOV

The Los Angeles City Council joined the environmental bandwagon last week with its call to support a 25-cent-per-bag charge for plastic bags in all stores starting in 2010.

The vote came despite testimony that the bags are recyclable and questions over the practical impact as well as the potential economic impact it would have on jobs.

For instance, reader Abe Hoffman asked what happens to garbage: Specifically, what are consumers to do if they are good citizens, use renewable canvas bags to bring their groceries home and then no longer have the plastic bags supplied by markets to get rid of garbage?

Um, well, officials stammered, the answer is they will have to buy bags to dispose of garbage.

"Was anyone there thinking when they adopted this?" Hoffman asked.

City officials insisted they were still on the right track, saying the smaller grocery store-provided plastic bags fly all over, are not recycled and end up in the Los Angeles River or the ocean.

The survey of voters released last week showing general support for yet another school bond measure did not contain much good news for Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and school officials.

Only 29 percent of those surveyed believe the city is on the right track. Fifty-five percent gave negative marks to Los Angeles Unified School Superintendent David Brewer III, and fully 73 percent think the school board is bad.

What may be even a worse sign is that school and city officials shrugged off the numbers as a reflection of a national trend and distrust of government.

Instead, they might do better to think of trying to come up with a plan to be responsive to what the public expects of them.

If there was any good news for the mayor, it was that the public desire for educational improvement came for his effort to take over a group of schools.

Fifty-seven percent said they approve of the effort and 62 percent back breaking up the Los Angeles Unified School District.

The poll surveyed 939 people throughout the LAUSD.

Two school board members are taking their time deciding whether the stress of the job is worth it.

Incumbent school board members Julie Korenstein and Marlene Canter both said they are taking the summer to decide if they will seek new terms in next March's elections.

Korenstein, who has been on the board for 21 years, said she is being urged to run again to provide balance against the majority loyal to Villaraigosa.

"When I was first elected, my three children were attending LAUSD schools," Korenstein said. "Now they have their kids attending schools. I never thought this would end up being a career."

Aides to Canter, who was first elected to the board in 2001 as part of the reform effort backed by former Mayor Richard Riordan, said she wants to take more time this summer to decide.

In other local political rumors, there has been talk that Sen. Sheila Kuehl, D-Los Angeles, was looking to sell her home to run for the Los Angeles City Council seat being vacated by Councilman Jack Weiss.

Weiss has announced he is giving up the seat to run for city attorney and his post already has drawn a crowded field of candidates.

Kuehl said through an aide that she has no plans to move into the city and the only elected office she is interested in is Board of Supervisors -- if Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky ever decides to leave the board.

Councilman Bernard Parks took umbrage with an item in this column last week about Parks using his city post to get involved with issues that, coincidentally, affect the 2nd Supervisorial District seat he is seeking against state Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas.

In particular, he was upset over the issue of the PXP drilling project in the unincorporated portion of Baldwin Hills.

Most of Baldwin Hills -- including where Parks lives -- is within Los Angeles city limits. And, he said, the drilling threatens to undermine the ground for the entire area.

It also was learned that Parks received a $1,000 donation from PXP in his 2004 race for mayor.

Parks dismissed it.

"I didn't know they contributed to me and it just shows my vote can't be bought," he said.

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