LOCAL ELECTIONS / COUNTY BOARD OF...

It says a lot about the 3rd District County Board of Supervisors race that observers are talking less about whether Los Angeles City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky will win than they are about who will run for his City Hall seat when he does, with his wife mentioned as a possible aspirant.

“The only question is, does Zev get 65% of the vote or 80%?� said political consultant Richard Lichtenstein. “The real focus is on who’s going to be the next councilperson.�

In fact, the city Ethics Commission is being pressed by impatient City Council wanna-bes to set a date when they can start raising money to run for Yaroslavsky’s 5th Council District seat. Current rules bar fund raising until a special election to fill the seat--not otherwise vacant until 1997--has been set.

In the voting Tuesday for the supervisorial seat, Yaroslavsky will rely heavily on people from the Westside and the San Fernando Valley’s hillside portions of the district to reflexively cast their ballots for him, with some urging from his cash-flush campaign machine.

“We expect to spend $400,000 to $500,000 total,� said Kevin Acebo, the veteran councilman’s campaign manager. Still, that will be about four times as much as Yaroslavsky’s top challenger, Don Wallace, a retired city fire captain, will have to spend, and it will be only about half of the $850,000 Yaroslavsky has raised.

The only glitch in this otherwise seamless story of Yaroslavsky’s political promotion was produced by the script’s own star when he was spotted removing several Wallace campaign signs from a busy intersection in Woodland Hills during the Memorial Day weekend.

A city worker who saw and reported the matter to police even took a photo of the candidate, in sunglasses and shorts, with his shirttails out. Wallace filed a complaint accusing Yaroslavsky of political vandalism, sought an injunction against Yaroslavsky going near any of Wallace’s signs and called the sign caper a “crime against democracy.�

Yaroslavsky has said he was not trying to sabotage Wallace’s signs but rather was gathering evidence that the signs were illegally placed on public or private property and lacked proper identification. The councilman subsequently filed a complaint of his own, asking the city Bureau of Street Maintenance to take steps to remove the Wallace signs if they are posted illegally on city property.

On Thursday, Superior Court Judge Diane Wayne denied Wallace’s application for injunctive relief but chided Yaroslavsky for acting in a childish manner. Meanwhile, City Atty. James K. Hahn continued to juggle the issue of what to do with Wallace’s criminal complaint.

Wallace is launching a cable TV campaign for the final weekend before the primary to spotlight the sign incident and cast Yaroslavsky as arrogant and ruthless. The incident is seen by the Wallace campaign--frustrated by Yaroslavsky’s fund-raising clout and Wallace’s inability to engage Yaroslavksy in more than two poorly attended debates--as its best bet for stalling the councilman’s juggernaut.

Despite the eleventh-hour flap, there are few political observers who think Wallace, 53, can force Yaroslavsky into a November runoff. Most political consultants are speculating not about Zev Yaroslavsky’s political prospects, but about Barbara Yaroslavsky’s and whether she will seek his council seat.

Barbara Yaroslavsky did not return a call from The Times asking about her political plans, and her husband said he has not discussed the matter with his wife.

Roberta Weintraub, the former Los Angeles school board president, and Michael Feuer, executive director of Bet Tzedek, a Jewish legal services organization, have already said they are running for Yaroslavsky’s council seat. Also considering the race are Lea Purwin D’Agostino, a deputy district attorney; Carol Schatz, director of government affairs for the Central City Assn., and perhaps some of the losing candidates in the 42nd Assembly District race on the Westside.

For the time being, such would-be candidates are waiting for Yaroslavsky to take over the supervisorial seat now held by Ed Edelman, who announced in December that he would not seek reelection.

Also running for Edelman’s seat are youth counselor Elgin Trammell Sr. and environmental consultant Michael Hirsch. Any candidate who gets more than 50% of the vote Tuesday will win the seat. If none do, there will be a runoff on Nov. 8.