WACHS JOINS INITIATIVE CROWD : CHARTER REFORM PROPOSAL BACKED.

Byline: Patrick McGreevy Daily News Staff Writer

City Councilman Joel Wachs broke ranks Tuesday and endorsed an initiative to create an elected Charter Reform Commission - sparking an angry confrontation on the steps of City Hall with Councilman Nate Holden.

Appearing at a news conference with Mayor Richard Riordan and Fire Commissioner David Fleming, who are organizing the initiative drive, Wachs said the City Council cannot be trusted to reform City Hall.

``It's just not realistic to think that the council will change the status quo, especially when it comes to relinquishing any of its own power. And yet that's exactly what's needed,'' Wachs said.

``Los Angeles city government cries out for reform and it should be obvious to everyone that it won't come from inside City Hall,'' he said. Holden, who has criticized the initiative drive as an attempt by the mayor to increase his power at the expense of the council, sat on the City Hall steps watching the news conference, and then got into an argument with Wachs.

He called Wachs a ``turncoat'' for supporting the initiative, and said the initiative would upset the checks and balances in the city's government system.

``(Riordan) wants to get rid of the City Council. That's what this is all about,'' Holden said.

``The mayor is used to being in a climate where you can be autocratic and when he says `jump' people will say `how high' on the way up,'' he said. ``That doesn't happen in government. This is a democracy.''

Riordan said the initiative - which would establish an elected panel to study charter reform - will empower the people of Los Angeles to make necessary reforms in city government.

``Angelenos, not elected officials and special interest groups, should decide what is best for our city,'' Riordan said. ``It is demeaning to Angelenos to think that we elected officials know better.

``We have a system of government that is dysfunctional,'' Riordan said. ``Government by committee has never worked in business or in the public sector - and in this case the committee is 15 members of the City Council.''

The City Council has rejected the idea of an elected Charter Reform Commission, choosing instead to appoint an advisory panel to recommend to the council what reforms, if any, are necessary.

Fleming, a Studio City attorney and head of the Economic Alliance of the San Fernando Valley, said an elected panel is the best way to guarantee true reform.

``We're looking forward not just to getting this initiative on the ballot, but more importantly to electing citizens to this group so that a new City Charter can be written by the people, directly for the people,'' he said.

Riordan, who is helping fund the initiative drive, said the campaign so far has collected more than 100,000 of the 197,000 signatures it needs by Oct. 30 to qualify for the April ballot.

``The support of our petition drive has been phenomenal,'' he said.

Riordan's initiative, if approved by the voters in April, would create a 15-member Charter Reform Commission with the power to submit reforms directly to the voters, without council revision.

Later in the day Holden wrote a letter to Riordan, challenging the mayor to a series of five debates on charter reform, including one in the San Fernando Valley.

``I think the public deserves to hear two opposing viewpoints on a matter that will change how our city is governed,'' Holden wrote.

The council voted two weeks ago to create an advisory commission that would recommend reforms that could be revised by the council before being placed on the ballot.

Wachs criticized the current system as dominated by special interests, and said he has concluded that a citizen-driven commission is the best hope for reforming the city's 71-year-old charter.

``Time and again this city government has ignored the public's will,'' Wachs said. ``Special interests wield an inordinately powerful influence in City Hall, and any real reform will have to come from the people.''

Nonetheless, Wachs said he plans to make an appointment to the council-created advisory commission in addition to supporting the separate, elected panel.

``I don't have a fear of having more than one viewpoint and more than one proposal,'' he said.

Riordan said he probably will not make the three appointments he is authorized to the council-created, 21-member advisory commission.

``It may confuse the residents of our city if I get involved in the two different reforms,'' he said.

The mayor also said Tuesday that he has asked the City Attorney's Office for clarification on whether the commission envisioned under the initiative could be elected at-large across the city, or by particular district.

``The constitution is not a hundred percent clear on these issues,'' Riordan said. ``Plus, I think it's important that the commission reflect the diversity of the city and to the extent I can help out to that end I will.''

Chip Nielsen, an attorney advising the initiative organizers, said the alternatives being looked at by the City Attorney's Office include giving each voter one vote to elect candidates in his or her council district, or giving each voter 15 votes to select from a large field of at-large candidates.

In the latter scheme, the 15 top vote-getters citywide would be elected to the commission.

``The statute seems to require the election to be held at-large,'' Nielsen said, noting that is how San Francisco County supervisors are elected.

The City Attorney's Office also is reviewing whether an at-large election would violate the federal Voting Rights Act set up to protect minority voters and whether the council can challenge the initiative on that ground.

Riordan also asked the City Attorney's Office to clarify whether the council would be required to place the initiative on the April 1997 ballot or whether it could delay putting the issue to the voters once it is qualified.

Assistant City Attorney Tony Alperin said he hopes to finish his analysis of the issues raised by Riordan by the end of this week.

``This is a question of what are the rules of the game,'' Nielsen said.

CAPTION(S):

PHOTO (color) At a lectern on the steps of City Hall, Fire Commissio ner David Fleming, left, Mayor Richard Riordan and Councilman Joel Wachs speak in support of Riordan's charter reform initiative. Councilman Nate Holden sits behind them.

Phil McCarten/Daily News