The grocers' mouthpiece: Steven Koff, head of the Southern California Grocers Association, brings political skills to an industry job.

Many a household refrigerator has a few magnets affixed to its doors, holding up telephone messages or family bulletins.

But Steven Koff's refrigerator door is covered with them, and all of the designs on the magnets sport a food theme, such as "Open Pit Barbeque Sauce" or "Planters Fresh Roasted Peanuts." Koff, president of the Southern California Grocers Association, brings the magnets home for his son Richard when he goes to grocery industry conventions.

Koff attends one or two weekend conventions a month and industry functions about three nights a week. No wonder he says he doesn't have time to coach his son's little league team this year.

Although Koff is often out late at night schmoozing with the power players in the industry, he rolls out of bed the next morning at 5:15 to scrutinize three newspapers, the Los Angeles Times, Daily News and Wall Street Journal. He admits he doesn't read the entire papers, though, but scans for articles relating to -- what else -- the food industry and the various agencies with which he deals.

There are 127 of those federal, state and local agencies, to be exact, says Koff at an interview at his round patio table in the backyard of his Sylmar home. Koff himself is round-faced and round-bodied, wears round spectacles and sports both a full head of salt-and-pepper hair and a moustache.

He is essentially the spokesman and lobbyist for Southern California's $25 billion-a-year grocery industry. His association gathers together the opinions of its 540 members, which are both retailers and suppliers, regarding current industry issues. Koff then voices those opinions to local government officials.

The Mid-Wilshire-based group is a non-profit organization supported mostly by dues from its members. The association also publishes an industry trade publication, the Grocers Journal of California, and puts on industry seminars. Its purpose is "to serve the betterment of the food industry in Southern California."

Its annual budget is about $500,000, while Koff disclosed that his own annual salary is between $50,000 and $100,000.

The association has six employees. These are a member services director, controller, magazine editor, magazine advertising director, clerk and a director for the association's grocery cart theft prevention program.

Among the association's members or participants (the latter are non-dues-paying grocery chains that are involved in many association activities) are Compton-based Ralphs Grocery Co.; Arcadia-based Vons Cos. Inc.; Dublin, Calif.-based Lucky Stores Inc.; La Habra-based Food 4 Less; Boise, Idaho-based Albertson's; and City of Commerce-based Certified Grocers. (Certified, a cooperative owned by independent grocers, distributes food to its members' stores and buys bulk food for them at discounted prices the individual members couldn't get themselves.)

One issue Koff and his members are currently grappling with is Mayor Tom Bradley's proposed rush-hour truck ban. Under the proposed ordinance, 70 percent of all "heavy" trucks -- those weighing in excess of 26,000 pounds -- would be outlawed on most city streets between 6-9 a.m. and 4-7 p.m. The Los Angeles Department of Transportation is doing an economic feasibility study of the proposal.

When the plan first surfaced a few years ago, the association formed a task force to study the scheme. It met with members of the Los Angeles City Council, city transportation officials and Mayor Bradley.

After reviewing revised versions of the proposal, the task force came to the conclusion that the ban would be too costly to implement, Koff says as he fiddles with the cordless telephone on his patio table. His Buick Century has broken down this day, and while he waits at home for it to be fixed, the telephone is his only link to the office.

The truck ban would hurt the Southland's 3,000 smaller grocers the most, he says. While larger grocery chains take care of deliveries to their own stores, smaller grocers rely on wholesalers and could miss out on deliveries if they are near the end of the run and the wholesaler's delivery truck hasn't reached them by the hour the ban takes effect, Koff says. The ban also would force larger chains to rearrange their own deliveries, which could add to their costs if they have to staff for deliveries during off-hours, he adds.

At this point, no action is being taken on the proposal. The grocers are waiting for the economic feasibility study to be completed this spring and for completion of an economic impact survey being conducted by the association itself.

Another current topic on Koff's agenda is regulating street vendors, particularly those who sell food. City Councilman Michael Woo proposed an ordinance in December 1990 to require them to go through the same regulatory process as other retailers before being allowed to operate. The association helped put together the ordinance, which is still winding its way through City Council committees.

There are a number of street vendors in Los Angeles that aren't properly licensed, Koff says, adding that the grocery industry is concerned about the health problems this could pose -- not the competition these street vendors provide, he stresses.

Even as a kid, Koff was interested in politics. He used to attend town hall meetings in his small hometown of Fort Lee, N.J., when he was in high school, and helped friends run for student government offices. "I was always the campaign manager," he says.

When Koff was a senior in high school, his father was offered a job in California and Koff decided to move out West with him to go to college. While studying political science at California State University at Northridge, he got involved in the San Fernando Valley chapter of the Young Democrats, and began to make contacts that would help him throughout his career.

Koff says that as a youngster he was always intrigued by how the whole political process worked, and didn't focus on any particular partisan viewpoint. Now he is a registered Democrat, though, but most of the industry executives he works with are Republicans.

He said he was attracted to politics by its ability to create change, and the ability of government to create a better environment and community in which to live. In his younger days he considered running for office, but as he got older, Koff found he enjoyed working behind the scenes so much that he changed his mind.

During his first couple of years out of college, Koff held public relations positions for several political campaigns, and from 1975-77 he held a PR job with "a major California political person." Koff declines to cite which politicians he worked for, but does say they were all Democrats.

Koff had made political contacts all over the state and decided to "round out" his career with a position in corporate affairs.

Certified Grocers was looking for someone to fill the newly created post of public affairs director. Koff applied, and when the executive director who was interviewing asked him who in politics he knew, Koff said he had a full list to present.

Koff has certainly made the rounds. Plastered on the walls of his den are photographs of him posed with various politicians, including Sen. Alan Cranston, D-Calif., and Hubert Humphrey, former vice president and presidential nominee.

He worked at Certified Grocers for five years establishing a public affairs program for the cooperative. As part of his duties, he educated the cooperative's independent grocery members on who their local elected officials were and how to work with them. One move he took to improve the cooperative's governmental relations was to give elected officials tours of grocery stores, he said.

Koff became president of the Southern California Grocers Association in 1984.

As president, he forms a consensus on industry issues by periodically meeting with various industry leaders. He meets with both an advisory group comprised of industry suppliers and executive officers of the association's 25-member board once a month.

He also attends the association's full board meetings, which convene every two months. The board is comprised of members of the grocery industry and is chaired by Peter Horn III, executive vice president and general manager of Vons.

In addition, Koff says he keeps in constant contact with members from all segments of the food industry by meeting them at industry functions, talking to them on the telephone and communicating by fax.

But Joe Sanchez, a founding member of the Mexican-American Grocers Association and a board member of the Southern California Grocers Association, says despite all this communication, Koff isn't one to horse around.

"He's not the type of person who spends a lot of time with chitchat. He is very business-like," Sanchez says, adding that he doubts Koff golfs or attends bachelor parties, for example.

Byron Allumbaugh, chairman and chief executive officer of Ralphs, says Koff has an excellent background in government at both the state and local levels and "knows how to talk to people in government."

Koff says his biggest challenge so far was dealing with the March 1989 recall of Chilean grapes and apples containing alar.

Government health officials found two grapes shipped to Los Angeles that contained traces of cyanide. Partly because of the efforts of the Southern California Grocers Association, most major Southland grocery chains had pulled the Chilean grapes from the shelves within an hour of the announcement, Koff says.

Soon afterward, a study by an independent scientific group revealed that large amounts of alar consumed over a period of time could cause cancer. Alar is used for preserving apples and giving them their red, shiny color.

The association also acted as a link between the industry and the media at that time, Koff says.

In essence, the association helped provide the public with information to reduce the state of panic. "You can't have panic if people perceive their food supply is threatened," he says.

A food recall puts the industry on the defensive, he adds.

Taking the offensive, Koff emphasizes that this nation's food distribution system is the world's best. "People take the food industry for granted," he says.

SNAPSHOT

Steven Koff

Native of: Fort Lee, N.J.

Current residence: Sylmar

Age: 39

Education: Bachelor's degree in political science, California State University, Northridge