Foes of Chick’s College Stand Take Protest to Her Doorstep : Politics: Manure is dumped at the 3rd District candidate’s headquarters. She counters that her position on Pierce land has been misinterpreted.

Manure was dumped on the doorstep of a Los Angeles City Council candidate’s campaign headquarters in Reseda on Tuesday, protesting a report that she favors developing vacant land at Pierce College.

The manure was dumped at the Sherman Way headquarters of Laura Chick, who said Tuesday that her stand on the vacant land issue had been misinterpreted. Chick is running against Councilwoman Joy Picus and four other candidates for the 3rd Council District seat representing the southwestern San Fernando Valley.

A sign left with the manure said it was a protest against Chick’s statements about developing vacant land at Pierce College, which has a large agriculture curriculum, a farm and livestock. The future of the 350 acres is an emotional issue on the campus and in the surrounding neighborhood in Woodland Hills.

“We assume it was a student prank,” said Harvey Englander, Chick’s campaign consultant.

A story published Sunday in The Times said Chick supported sale of vacant land at the community college as long as its development by subsequent buyers was compatible with the campus. Her position was extracted from her written response to a Times questionnaire distributed to all 3rd District candidates.

Chick clarified her position in a letter to The Times on Tuesday, saying the only compatible development would be as a golf driving range or equestrian center, “two uses which have been considered by the college officials.”

“Laura should’ve made it clearer where she stood on the Pierce College issue,” Englander said Tuesday.

Chick also said she supports sale of a vacant high-rise office building the college owns on Wilshire Boulevard, with the proceeds to be used for the school’s educational programs.

Robert Gross, a homeowner activist and rival candidate, said he was not surprised by the protest. “I imagine there are a lot of people upset with Chick’s position on Pierce College, but they should take it out on her at the polls,” Gross said.

Gross opposes sale of the vacant land. The property should be kept as open space and used only for campus expansion at a later date, Gross has said.

“The people who are supporting Chick--developers--want to get their hands on that property to develop it,” Gross contended. Chick has received campaign contributions from real estate interests, as has Picus.

In her answer to The Times questionnaire, Picus said she is “strongly opposed to the development” of Pierce College.

In another development in the race, the Picus campaign lashed out at Chick in a new attack-mailer sent to 45,000 residents. Displaying a check for $500 that Chick contributed to Picus’ 1989 campaign and noting that Chick formerly was an aide to Picus, it pointedly asks: “So what’s happened in the last four years to cause Laura Chick to turn and run against Joy now?”

The answer, according to the Picus campaign: “In the last four years, Laura Chick did a lot for herself. But nothing for our West Valley neighborhoods.”

According to the mailer, Chick has recently worked for a real estate consultant and “traveled all over the world with her airport commissioner husband.”

Englander said the piece was full of “pitiful half-truths.” Chick worked for a consulting firm that had some real estate clients and traveled with her husband, Robert Chick, a former city airport commissioner, on world tours to drum up trade and business for Los Angeles, but she paid her own way, Englander replied.

If no candidate gets more than 50% of the vote in next Tuesday’s primary, the two top vote-getters will face each other in a June 8 runoff.