It’s Too Important to Be Left to Professionals

The last time Jan B. Tucker ran for office, he aimed high. Having previously failed in campaigns for the state Legislature, lieutenant governor and Congress, he went after the presidency of the United States of America. All considered, he figures he didn’t do so badly. This male member of NOW and white member of the NAACP was the runner-up among four candidates in the Peace and Freedom Party’s California primary.

Now Tucker, a San Fernando Valley resident, has embarked on another campaign. “I’ve never had such a good chance of winning,” he says.

Tucker is one of the 112 Angelenos who this week met the deadline for declaring their intentions of seeking election to the 15-member charter reform commission that has been authorized via a petition drive financed by Mayor Richard Riordan. This panel will someday engage in a duel of ideas with another charter reform commission consisting of 21 members appointed by the city’s elected officials. If this seems messy and confusing, that’s because it is.

Like the 111 other charter-reform candidates seeking election, Tucker will have to collect enough signatures to qualify for the April 9 ballot. Here’s wishing them all good luck. Why, we might even wind up with a commission that not only, as the saying goes, “looks like L.A.” but feels like L.A.

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We already have a blue-ribbon panel populated by the usual suspects. The appointed commission is rich in civic leader types, with former Supervisor Ed Edelman topping the list. There are other former elected officials, plus a judge, government professor, a couple of business executives, a labor honcho, a few lawyers. They may be diverse in terms of geography, race, ethnicity, religion and sexual orientation. They are just what you expect in these blue-ribbon appointees, which doesn’t mean they can’t do a fine job. But do they truly represent Los Angeles as we know it? Or do they all come from a place we might call Official L.A.?

Just peruse the list of occupations of the 112 potential candidates for the elected charter reform commission and you’ll see a richer sort of diversity. Yes, there are still plenty of businessmen and businesswomen, still plenty of attorneys and “neighborhood activists.”

Tucker, for example, may be a candidate in Council District No. 2, but he really represents the sinister place that is L.A. Noir. Tucker, you see, is a private eye, like Philip Marlowe, Jake Gittes and Easy Rawlins, only real. What would L.A. be without private eyes?

Sal Castro, meanwhile, is a high school teacher and Khalil Khalil an engineer. James Greenfield is a welder and Theresa M. Karam a psychologist. Angus McBain is an investment banker and David Bischoff is an “airport plumber.” Sylva E. Blackstone teaches “urban forestry” and Mervin Evans is a cable TV executive. Horace Nick Stewart is an “actor, producer, director” and J. Eric Freedner a “paralegal-landlord-songwriter.” And in Sadhana Jean Carol Johnson, this commission could have its own “holistic health practitioner.”

Holistically speaking, this commission could prove much more reflective of the Los Angeles we know and usually love. Hollywood and New Age L.A. could have a voice. Tucker, incidentally, wouldn’t be the only candidate who makes a living on L.A.’s dark side. Two cop-types filed papers, LAPD Homicide Det. Ed Hale and Sgt. Dennis P. Zine, treasurer of the Police Protective League. And there’s even one of those talking heads from O.J. Land--USC law professor Erwin Chemerinsky.

Yes, this commission could be another kind of Dream Team. Even Official L.A. could be included. Familiar names include former teachers union head Helen Bernstein, school board member David Tokofsky and former Assembly members Paula Boland and Marguerite Archie-Hudson. Already appointed to the other reform panel, Archie-Hudson could wind up serving on both.

Ed Edelman has spoken wistfully of the possibility of the two commissions working together. Another panelist, UCLA professor Xandra Kayden, expressed the common fear that the commissions will be rivals. Eventually, probably in 1999, voters will choose between two reform measures. The worry is that frustration and confusion could turn both efforts into failures.

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Ask Kayden and Tucker how they would fix Los Angeles and you’ll hear some similar themes. Both talk about giving neighborhoods more control over their destiny and the belief that an expanded City Council would help. Tucker says his own encounters with City Hall have convinced him of the need to streamline bureaucracy and “eliminate a lot of useless buffoons.”

That’s part of the message Tucker says he’ll take from door to door in Council District No. 2, hoping to overcome whichever candidate wins Riordan’s endorsement. He could face eight rivals on this ballot--and one might be Sadhana Johnson.

So we can have either a private eye or a holistic healer on the job. Sadly, we can’t have both.

Scott Harris’ column appears Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. Readers may write to Harris at the Times Valley Edition, 20000 Prairie St., Chatsworth 91311. Please include a phone number.

Why, we might even wind up with a commission that not only, as the saying goes, “looks like L.A.” but feels like L.A.