Opinion
Author: BILL BOYARSKY

Let Voters Decide Fate of Hernandez By BILL BOYARSKY

The Mike Hernandez case is full of hypocrisy.

First of all, there's City Councilman Hernandez himself, who has admitted
being addicted to cocaine and drinking a quart of tequila a night while
sponsoring street signs on Pico Boulevard proclaiming "No Drugs, No
Graffiti, the Neighborhood Is Watching."

Not nearly in the same class, but also eligible for the hypocrites league
are the members of the Los Angeles City Council and Mayor Richard Riordan,
who are demanding that Hernandez resign. They've relegated Hernandez's
povertystricken 1st District to the back of the bus for years, and are
turning their attention to it, and its councilman, only after being
bombarded with communications from constituents demanding his ouster.

If Hernandez wants to resign, fine. It's a fulltime job to recover from an
addiction like his. Even then, some addicts fall off the wagon two, three
or four times before making it. But he doesn't appear ready to quit and his
term runs until 2001.

In any case, his real judges and jury are the voters of his district, who
are now being asked to sign petitions for a recall election. They've lived
under his misrule. Let them have the satisfaction of kicking him out.

I saw the results of his misrule Tuesday as I walked along Pico Boulevard,
east of Normandie Avenue, with three recall campaigners, Al Molina, Rudy
Renorio de Cordova and Pedro Hernandez.

We paused at Mariposa Avenue. Pedro Hernandez, no relation to the
councilman, pointed to a storm sewer filled with decayed food, dirty
plates, bottles and other debris. He said the litter was left by food
vendors whose trucks line the curb on Mariposa. When the vendors are done,
they sweep the garbage into the streets. After a good rainstorm, some of it
ends up on the beach.

Hernandez assessed the debris with an understanding of city waste disposal
gained in 22 years as a sanitation department employee. "You know the Lopez
Canyon dump in the Valley," he said. "This street's the same thing."

The street vendors not only mess up the sidewalks and streets, but they
take business away from longestablished businesses on Pico. Yolanda
Rodriguez, whose family has owned the El Forolito restaurant for 24 years,
is burdened with both garbage and business loss. On Monday, she and her dad
spent two hours sweeping the sidewalks in the long block in front of the
restaurant. She looked up at the trees, recently trimmed. "It's the first
time in years," she said.

These are part of what Mayor Riordan likes to call "quality of life"
issues, the dirt, grime and neglect that destroy a neighborhood's morale
and invite crime.

But there's much worse going on in Hernandez's districtwhich reaches from
impoverished PicoUnion north through Dodger Stadium to portions of upscale
Mt. Washington.

Drug dealers and gangs are powerful and prostitutes everpresent, despite
strong law enforcement efforts to control them.

This has been going on for years, and even the best council representative
could not cure the basic problems of the poorest parts of the 1st District.
Impoverished immigrants from Central America and southern Mexico, many here
illegally, live in some of America's most crowded slums. Unemployment is
high and many of the employed work in lowpaid jobs in restaurants or the
garment industry.

Whatever help the city can provide is diluted by the City Hall custom of
equally dividing the limited social service and housing funds among 15
council districts, rich and poor alike. The failure to set priorities
according to need has been tolerated by this mayor and his predecessors.

But a really sharp, hardworking council representative can overcome some
of these limitations. A good council member flatters, cajoles and threatens
department heads and their subordinates, pushing them to pay more attention
to district needs.

The late Kenny Hahn knew that. In Los Angeles County government, where
appropriations are divided among five districts, the road commissioner
always put his friend Supervisor Hahn at the top of the list, giving him an
edge in the competition for money.

But a lawmaker isn't up to such difficult work after drinking a quart of
tequila at night and snorting coke the next morning.

The council has expressed little concern for the district's troubles and
little alarm in the past couple of years when Hernandez trembled and
rambled during his City Council speeches. After his arrest, he returned to
City Hall to public expressions of sympathy by the council and Riordan.

Opposition started within the district, from grassroots activists who were
furious about the drugs. "He said he was going to get rid of the drug
dealers and he was going to another area and supporting the drug dealers,"
said Demetrious Pantazis, who has owned a chicken and burger restaurant on
Pico since 1968.

People like Pantazis launched the recall campaign, before council members
and the mayor jumped in.

The recall people need real help. They have just 120 days to gather some
6,400 signatures to force a recall election. They've set up a hotline,
(213) 7695530.

These people had the guts to start the job. They and the voters of the 1st
District deserve the chance to decide Hernandez's fate.

Copyright Los Angeles Times