L.A. ELECTIONS / 2ND COUNCIL DISTRICT : Another Easy Reelection Expected for Wachs

When Joel Wachs won his first term on the Los Angeles City Council in 1971, Watergate had yet to become a household word, the Vietnam War still raged in Southeast Asia and Bill Clinton was just another Yale law student.

Twenty-four years later, Wachs, 56, is running for his seventh term in office, positioning himself as an advocate for efficient, cost-effective government and increased police protection.

But his sole challenger, Wayne Clary, 48, a computer consultant from Sunland, charges that Wachs has had long enough to cut waste and improve public safety and accuses the veteran councilman of becoming entrenched and out of touch with his constituents.

If this sounds like it has the makings of a good old-fashioned, knock-down-drag-out political battle, think again.

Political consultants favor Wachs to easily beat Clary because, in part, the challenger has no political track record, while Wachs has two dozen years of experience, the support of Mayor Richard Riordan and a $173,500 campaign war chest that dwarfs Clary’s $10,500 account.

In fact, Wachs is so confident he will be reelected that Monday he skipped one of the few candidate forums because it fell on the same night UCLA met the University of Arkansas to win the national basketball championship.

“I wasn’t going to miss that,� said Wachs, a UCLA alumnus.

The 2nd District that Wachs represents is an oddly shaped jurisdiction that includes Sunland in the northeast San Fernando Valley, Studio City in the southeast Valley and Van Nuys in the central Valley.

Since he was first elected as a young tax attorney only six years out of Harvard Law School, Wachs has easily won reelection five times. In 1993, he ran for the second time for mayor, gathering 11% of the vote citywide and finishing third overall. In his district he finished second, getting 17% of the vote.

During his tenure, Wachs has championed the creation of the city’s Endowment for the Arts, rent control laws to protect tenants, utility rate discounts for senior citizens and laws barring discrimination against gays and lesbians.

Although the race is nonpartisan, Wachs changed his party registration from Republican to independent during his 1993 mayoral bid, saying he identified more closely with independents than with Republicans.

Clary, an associate pastor at his church and a former sheriff’s deputy in Wisconsin, is a Republican who worked as a volunteer in the campaigns of former President George Bush and former Gov. George Deukmejian. “I’m a fiscal conservative but I’m liberal when it comes to addressing social problems,� he said.

In his campaign literature, Clary advocates increasing police patrols, adding Neighborhood Watch programs, breaking up the Los Angeles Unified School District, slashing government red tape and improving communications between residents and city government.

For his part, Wachs has emphasized his recent efforts to cut waste in City Hall. With the support of Riordan, Wachs has led the charge, for example, to reform the city’s antiquated purchasing systems, a plan that he said could save the city up to $70 million annually and help pay to hire hundreds of additional police officers. The council put the purchasing reform plan, which would amend the City Charter, on Tuesday’s ballot.

In fact, the idea is so popular that candidates for other council seats have campaigned on the purchasing reform plan as a way of funding improved police protection.

“I really see a huge opportunity for big savings if we follow through on this,� Wachs said. “I see the charter amendment as only a first step.�

Clary said he has nothing against Wachs’ reform plan but questions the councilman for not proposing it sooner. “Why is it that he suddenly brings this up just before an election?� Clary asks.

Wachs responds by saying that it was only after Riordan was elected in 1993 that he felt he could get some support to press for such reforms in City Hall. “I’ve been almost a lone voice on this,� he said.

That aside, Clary said he has other fundamental differences of opinion with Wachs.

For example, he cited a Times article last year that reported how Wachs and several other council members had transferred a total of about $125,000 over three years away from public-service and neighborhood-cleanup programs to pay for their staffs’ salaries.

Wachs himself diverted nearly $39,000, according to the Times analysis. Clary criticized Wachs over the diversion, saying he would have used the money to help clean up graffiti-marred neighborhoods. Wachs has defended the transfer, saying it was used to retain staff members whose positions otherwise would have been eliminated by budget cuts.

As for Clary’s charge that Wachs is out of touch with his constituents, Wachs said he spends many hours each week listening to the concerns of residents. Although he has not formed as many citizens advisory groups as many of his colleagues, Wachs said he keeps in touch mostly with homeowner groups, chamber of commerce leaders and school organizations.

“The very reason I’m going to win by a large margin is that I’m in touch with my constituents,� Wachs said.