City Hall Lift Could Be Reopened to Public--for $40,000

Equality has its price.

Six months ago, an elevator at Los Angeles City Hall was reserved for elected officials and other city VIPs, drawing charges of elitism.

This week, a City Council panel recommended that it be put back into public service, finding that only 12 people have been using the VIP lift, while hundreds of others have faced waits of 10 minutes or more for the remaining public elevators.

The only problem is the cost: $40,000, on top of the $50,000 it cost to retrofit it for card-carrying VIPs in the first place.

“I’m very unhappy that it will cost money,” said City Councilwoman Laura Chick, who boycotted the elevator. “But the money to make it an executive elevator should never have been spent in the first place.”

She said the original change was never approved by the council.

“If you add up the amount of time that elected officials, department managers and front-line employees are wasting standing around waiting for elevators, it more than pays to put it back into use,” Chick said.

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TALKING HEAD: Turn on the tube nowadays and Rep. James Rogan’s mug is very likely to materialize on CNN or C-SPAN, discussing the finer points of the case to oust President Clinton.

By all accounts, Rogan (R-Glendale) has risen to the challenge of the impeachment debate, and his prominent role as prosecutor in the ongoing Senate trial has catapulted him into talking-head stardom.

Just Wednesday, Rogan was busy deposing White House aide Sidney Blumenthal about conversations with Clinton regarding Monica Lewinsky. Then Rogan was busy talking into the television cameras--talking, then talking some more.

Rogan may now be a television regular, and the darling of conservative Clinton-haters nationwide, but he could be waiting a while for a close-up from the liberal Hollywood crowd, which may be gunning for him harder than ever in 2000 elections.

Many high-profile members of the entertainment business have threatened political payback in the form of a wholesale opening of checkbooks.

Among those already taking action are a Burbank screenwriter and a Sherman Oaks producer, who have launched a new political action committee to nail those who voted to impeach Clinton. Rogan, not surprisingly, tops the hit list for the so-called People’s Will PAC, though he is not alone.

“Rogan’s is a particularly egregious case because he has been so aggressive, and so obnoxious, throughout this whole process,” said Darin Scott, the producer of the critically acclaimed film “Menace II Society.” “It’s such arrogance, and disregard for the people’s will, which is why we named the PAC People’s Will.”

Scott and his old USC buddy, John Cork, recently did their first mass mailing to possible donors. Cork, best known for penning the screenplay to the film “The Long Walk Home” with Whoopi Goldberg and Sissy Spacek, said the PAC is one of several hoping to harness a groundswell of entertainers angry over the partisan theatrics in Washington.

Of course, Rogan has bested similar opposition before. His foe in last November’s election, former Screen Actors Guild President Barry Gordon, mined the Hollywood community for money, yet still raised less than half as much as Rogan, a former Glendale judge.

But Cork said the next “Get Rogan” production figures to have a much bigger budget--and a much more dramatic script, culled from Rogan’s much publicized actions as zealous Clinton adversary.

“I think Rogan has truly shown he is way too far to the right for this district,” Cork said. “He can raise all the money he wants, but he can’t take this back.”

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WOULD-BE FOUNDERS: Maybe it won’t quite match the pomp and circumstance of the historic Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia two centuries ago, but the Founding Fathers of Valley secession are planning an important assembly of their own.

Still in the conceptual stage, the convention by the pro-secession group Valley VOTE would be an opportunity for all caught up in the revolutionary spirit of these times to opine on the structure of a proposed Valley city free from the shackles of Los Angeles.

“When this country became a country, they held a Constitutional Convention to determine the form of their new government,” said Valley VOTE President Jeff Brain. “We would like to do the same.”

Secession leaders are also formulating a new declaration of purpose, or, um, a mission statement, to reflect Valley VOTE’s shifting goals.

The group’s initial mission--or its public stance, at least--was simply to fight for a secession study. But its members, confident they will achieve that goal soon, are now pondering strategies for an actual campaign to become a city, and would like to make their transition public.

Valley VOTE has now turned in more than 200,000 petition signatures, more than the amount required to kick off a secession study, though the signatures have yet to be verified.

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THANKS, BUT NO THANKS: The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn. has flatly rejected an invitation from Mayor Richard Riordan to sit on a citizen oversight panel to make sure $744 million in proposed police and fire bonds is properly spent, if approved by voters.

“We decline the invitation to sit on a bond oversight committee,” said Jonathan Coupal, the association’s president. “The bond is too large and an oversight committee is a toothless safeguard.”

Coupal, who wrote the ballot argument against the bond measure, was furious that the invitation was extended in the mayor’s ballot argument for the measure, which he fears will confuse voters.

“We share a common goal with taxpayers and invite the Jarvis Taxpayers Assn. to join us as a member of this independent panel,” said the pro-bond argument, also signed by police and fire department union leaders.

Coupal denounced the use of his group’s name in the argument in favor of the bonds.

“Using our name, Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn., in ballot arguments favoring a huge new bond measure is clearly an effort to confuse voters,” Coupal said. “Because of the city’s abysmal record when it comes to keeping promises on bonds, taxpayers do not believe the city should be trusted with a bond of this magnitude.”

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Correspondent Sue Fox contributed to this story.