When school is out, councilman plans to take a lesson on the streets.

KNOCK, KNOCK: The election returns were hardly in last Tuesday night when Inglewood City Councilman Jose Fernandez announced to whomever was listening, “I’m going to be walking my precincts this summer.�

That’s nice, and a little unusual, since Fernandez isn’t up for reelection until 1995.

Fernandez insists his plans have nothing to do with the defeat of two council colleagues, Anthony Scardenzan and Daniel K. Tabor. The three-term incumbents were ousted by political newcomers Judith L. Dunlap and Curren Price Jr.

Fernandez said he simply likes walking precincts. And besides, he pointed out, he is a schoolteacher, so he has lots of time on his hands in the summer.

And what a way to spend it, pounding the hot pavement.

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MONEY WOES: Up and down the South Bay, it is budget time in the cities.

Carson will have a public hearing Tuesday on the city’s $29-million general fund budget, up $1 million from last year’s spending blueprint. The budget does not call for the expansion of city services, but neither does it include any layoffs or staff reductions, City Manager Lawrence G. Olson said.

“It’s pretty much a rollover budget,� Olson said.

Carson and other cities expect to be strapped for funds since the state government plans to withhold $2.6 billion in property tax revenue that local governments normally would get. Carson also will continue its two-year hiring freeze, leaving 38 of 280 staff positions vacant, he said. The unfilled positions have strained the staff, Olson said, but city officials hope that new businesses coming into the city will provide more revenue. The renovated Carson Mall, now called South Bay Pavilion at Carson, and a Contractors Warehouse that opened this month should bolster sales tax revenue.

Inglewood is so short of cash for the coming year that the City Council is being asked to approve close to two dozen layoffs, a series of demotions and an administrative reorganization of the Police Department.

The council will discuss its proposed $138-million spending plan--down $6 million from the city’s current budget--at a public hearing Tuesday.

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DECISION IN SPACE: Is NASA’s proposed space station a multibillion-dollar boondoggle or a valuable scientific research tool?

Don’t ask Rep. Jane Harman (D-Marina del Rey), who represents the South Bay, home to many aerospace industries. At least don’t ask her until later this week.

Harman last week abstained from voting when the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology considered legislation that calls for spending $2.2 billion a year for the next six years on the proposed space station. The measure, which was passed by the committee, will be considered by the full House late next week.

Harman, whose district is brimming with aerospace companies, said the South Bay’s job gains under the space station program would be “modest� at best, since most of the work would be done in other parts of California.

Before voting, the freshman representative wants to hear from President Clinton, who is expected to make recommendations on the station on Tuesday. She also would like more information on the precise cost, given the program’s history of overruns.

“We have to watch every dollar and I intend to do that,� Harman said.

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BEACON OF HOPE: San Pedro’s Beacon House, a nonprofit alcohol recovery center, has received $28,500 in foundation grants to expand a pilot program aimed at discouraging local youngsters from using alcohol and drugs.

Developed by child psychologists and educators, the program called BABES (Beginning Alcohol and Addictions Basic Education Studies) teaches third-graders the dangers of alcohol and drug use. Three volunteers, themselves recovering substance abusers, use puppets to demonstrate how to resist peer pressure and how to cope when parental drinking or drug use creates problems at home.

Sixty students at 15th Street and Barton Hill elementary schools in San Pedro have already taken the six-week course. The expanded program will begin in the fall, with a class of 30 students taking the course every six weeks, Beacon House officials say.

The San Pedro-headquartered Crail-Johnson Foundation and the Weingart Foundation supplied the grants for the program, which is endorsed by the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“I think it was a tough year to be an incumbent. . . . Every time I would try to talk about the issues, he would talk about me. But what is meant to be will be.�

--Joan Milke Flores, Los Angeles city councilwoman, after being defeated for reelection last Tuesday by Rudy Svorinich, a 33-year-old paint store owner from San Pedro. The defeat ends Flores’ 12-year tenure on the City Council.

LAST WEEK’S

CITY HALL HIGHLIGHTS

Torrance: For a second straight time, the City Council tabled a proposal to shut down City Hall on Fridays to save money. The council is expected to consider the matter later this month.