The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • Page 26

B2 TUESDAY, JUNE 17, 1997 LOS ANGELES TIMES News, people and events in Los Angeles County's communities. Where to Call With News Central Los Angeles: (213) 237-7077 San Fernando Valley: (818) 772-3200 San Gabriel Valley: (818) 303-8955 South Bay: (310) 726-0350 Southeast: (310) 432-5415 Westside: (310) 4506666 7 IFY it Westside Plan to Overhaul Downtown Santa Monica Clears Panel A plan to turn downtown Santa Monica into a Third Street Promenade-like area has received approval from a committee of city and planning officials and is on its way to the City Council for final adoption next month. The $17-million plan calls for widening streets between Lincoln and Ocean boulevards and Wilshire Boulevard and the Santa Monica Freeway, redirecting traffic on one-way streets and widening sidewalks. The plan will allow restaurants to have cafe-style dining, provide space for pushcart vendors and kiosks, and give downtown streets a uniform appearance. Councilman Paul Rosenstein said that if the council approves the project, construction would begin in early 1998.

He said the city plans to use a $5-million federal transportation grant to build the first phase, which would include redirecting traffic and opening one-way streets to two-way traffic. The city still must secure funding to complete the remainder of the project. "We're looking at making improvements overall and making the downtown more accessible," Rosenstein said. sv V. ft- LU1SS1NCO Lot Angelet Timet From left, Frances Rodriguez, Myisha Ivory and Keena D.

Ester help restore vandalized greenhouse. Central Los Angeles Hope Takes Root Again After Greenhouse Is Vandalized Official Business 32 Candidates Apply to Become Next LAPD Chief Thirty-two people have applied to become the Los Angeles Police Department's next chief, city officials said Monday. Seven candidates are from within the LAPD and the remaining 25 are from outside the department, said William Fujioka, head of the city's personnel department. A newly created 10-member "screening committee" is expected to meet Friday to review the applications, Fujioka said. After that meeting, the committee is expected to forward the names of at least six candidates to the Los Angeles Police Commission.

The panel will then narrow the list to three candidates, in order of preference, and submit the names to the mayor, who will select the next chief. The mayor's selection must be approved by the City Council. The names of the candidates will remain confidential, Fujioka said. However, six of the applicants from within the LAPD have publicly confirmed their interest in the job. They are Deputy Chiefs Ronald C.

Banks, David Gascon, Robert Gil, Mark Kroeker and Bernard Parks, and Cmdr. Art Lopez. Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department Chief Lee D. Baca also has applied for the job. 'Blue Flu' Strikes Compton After Contract Talks Stall About 10 of Compton police officers called in sick for Monday's day shift after contract talks aimed at resolving salary and schedule issues failed.

Scrambling to maintain their presence on Compton streets, the 138-officer department reassigned officers from other units to patrol duty. City Manager Howard Caldwell said the department might have to pay overtime to certain officers to cover day and night shifts, but that the cost would be "nominal." "Most of our officers are dedicated police officers and therefore the few officers that may take part in this illegal job action will not impair the safety of the community," said Chief Hourie L. Taylor. The job action was the result of the collapse of negotiations over a broad range of salary, benefits, schedule and equipment issues. Comp-ton's police union, the Compton Police Officers says it did not authorize the "blue flu" and doesn't know how long it will last.

"People are just fed up," said Officer Robert Williams, who said he couldn't show up for his shift because of a head cold and a stomach virus. Williams disputed the department's numbers, saying as many as half of the city's officers had joined in the sickout. Prosecutor Pleads Guilty to Fraud, Conflict of Interest A former assistant U.S. attorney who admitted making illegal business transactions while serving in the federal post is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 8, a judge said Monday.

Andrew Pitt, who signed a plea agreement several weeks ago, formally pleaded guilty Monday to two felony counts of wire fraud and one count of engaging in a conflict of interest. Justice Department lawyers charged Pitt with receiving money from individuals who were the subjects of federal investigations. Pitt, who faces between 24 and 30 months in prison, recently resigned from the U.S. attorney's office. According to the plea agreement, Pitt took $33,000 from an illegal stock transaction he was investigating.

In separate cases, he also accepted $98,000 from one informant and $35,000 from another. Pitt recommended probation for one of the informants rather than prison time, and asked for postponement of a prison reporting date for the other informant. San Gabriel Valley Council Weighs Rate Hikes to Fund Water Tank Project Water customers in Arcadia may soon have to pay a little more for service to help finance the replacement of two outdated storage tanks. The Arcadia City Council tonight will consider a proposal to raise water rates by 10 and increase the bimonthly water fee by 15 next month. If the two increases are approved, the average residential bimonthly water bill would increase by $10 to $74, city officials said.

Arcadia General Services Manager Gary Lewis said the city needs the additional revenue to build two larger water storage tanks. A tank would be built near the center of the city to replace one dating to the 1930s, he said. The other tank would be constructed in the city's fire-prone foothills area. When the existing foothills i tank was built in 1957, it was required to produce 1,500 gallons per minute for two hours. But in the wake of the Oakland and Altadena fires, state officials are seeking to upgrade tanks in high-risk areas to 4,000 gallons a minute for a four-hour span, Lewis said.

Center. The perpetrators entered through the roof, covered the walls and windows with graffiti, trampled a variety of seedlings, stole tools, and scattered dirt in the greenhouse. The seedlings of tomatoes, vegetables, and flowers were to have been transferred to the outside garden plot. "It is just so discouraging to the seniors and to the students," said Ethel Gorrell, director of the center. "But, we just have to get started in the greenhouse all over again.

We just have to." It is considered an oasis amid the urban sprawl of South-Central Los Angeles: The Garden Project, an acre of fruit trees, vegetables, climbing roses and a greenhouse at 79th Street and Towne Avenue. Two weeks ago, the greenhouse was vandalized, sending a wave of anger throughout the neighborhood where senior citizens and high school students worked side by side planting a community garden. "It leaves a bad taste in your mouth because you work at something to get it nice and somebody comes in and vandalizes it," said Leroy Shepard, an employee at the nearby Van Meter Senior Citizens Southeast Officers Carry Torch to Raise Funds for Special Olympics downtown Long Beach, they handed the torch to members of the Los Angeles Police Department upon reaching the Wilmington border at Pacific Coast Highway about 2:30 p.m. Across the state, more than 1,500 police officers have signed up to participate in two simultaneous torch relays. The fund-raising event was started in 1981 to support the California Special Olympics.

This year's events are set to begin Friday and conclude Sunday. A caravan of runners, bicyclists and roller -skaters representing the Long Beach Police Department carried a Special Olympics torch nine miles through the city Monday in support of the coming weekend summer games at UCLA. Accompanied by support vehicles, more than a dozen officers made their way west after receiving the torch from the Seal Beach Police Department about 1 p.m. Winding from Pacific Coast Highway through Belmont Shore, then along Ocean Boulevard toward South Bay Magazine Cites College's Long-Distance Curriculum Cal State Dominguez Hills is the only state institution to be named to Forbes magazine's top 20 distance-learning universities in the United States. The magazine, in its June 16 issue, notes that the schools were selected according to a survey of experts that included members of Peterson's Distance Learning Guide and Distance Education and Technology Newsletter.

The university, located in Carson, began its first distance-learning program six years ago when it broadcast an algebra class to six students at Dominguez High School in Compton. Today, there are more than 3,000 students who can take 63 classes via the Internet, cable television, a satellite network and video conferencing. Students can, without leaving their homes, earn a bachelor's degree in interdisciplinary studies or nursing, or a master's degree in business administration, quality assurance or behavior science. San Fernando Valley New Complex to Be Erected at Northridge Quake Site The nation last saw the area as a heap of wreckage, glass shards and splintered beams. At the site where the Northridge Meadows apartment complex once stood, a symbol of the Jan.

17, 1994, earthquake and its destruction, work on the new Pare Ridge apartment structure began Monday. Its builders say it will be a symbol of recovery as well as a memorial. The building's designer, John Reed of Santa Monica-based REA Architects, said the design and materials used in Pare Ridge "will make an architectural statement about the earthquake." Reed and Robert Kleiman, co-owner of Structure Development Group, the project's contractor, pointed to tougher building codes the city adopted after the earthquake. "The new codes require significantly improved structural components, like additional hold-down bolts to the foundation and sheer walls," Kleiman said. Only in LA.

BY STEVE HARVEY -4 1 i 1 i'jAUSTIN or L.A.?i CLP HESS UiJ DRUNKS OF ANAHEIM. NEEDLING THE SCHOLARS: On the San Diego Freeway, we spotted a parody of an all-too-common bumper sticker. This one proclaimed, "My Kid Tattooed Your Honor Student." NAME GAME, VIA RAPID TRANSIT: "I moved to L.A. in March of 1995 from San Francisco," writes bank employee Brian McDonald. "There was an individual who worked in our branch.

His name was Bartholomew Rider. He went by Bart. Guess how he commuted to work?" MIKE'S LOST WORLD: A press release from Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich on proposals to rebuild County-USC Medical Center contained this rare, mixed archeological metaphor: "The Building of Pyramids Went Out with the Pharaohs Large Government Bureaucracies are the Dinosaurs of the Past." miscelLAny: For this week's class of Laundry Lit 101, Linda Jones of Northridge contributes the following washing instructions, which came with an evening bag that was made in Thailand. "When I become soil," the instructions said, "press me all over with a loaf of your breakfast (without butter, of course!) and then I will be ready to glamour with you again." Oddly enough, this was also one of Bugsy Siegel's favorite sayings. LA.

insult of the week: Chet Jaeger of Claremont visited Austin, Texas, and noticed to his surprise that the City of Angels was featured on countless placards for a City Council election as the villain, of course (see photo). "Once again," Jaeger observed, "Los Angeles was used as the paradigm of evil, air pollution, foul water, etc." The candidates, who were pro-environment and anti-development, triumphed, by the way. On behalf of Los Angeles, we say to the victors: Always glad to lend a helping hand. BOMBS OVER LYNWOOD: Her neighbors thought it was an earthquake. But, no, it was just a real thorough fumigation effort by a Lynwood woman.

What she did was set off seven bug bombs in her apartment kitchen, causing an explosion that resulted in "tremendous amounts of glass and metal" debris being blown out of the building, Lynwood Fire Department officials said. The resident, who was unhurt, had apparently failed to read instructions on the can that said one bomb would do the job for 625 square feet. Her apartment covered 700 square feet. She also failed to notice instructions to keep the flammable chemical away from any open flame in her case, the pilot light in the oven. Now, she has no.

insects or windows, for that matter. JENNIFER BLACK For The Time CHET JAEGER For The Timed A jab from the heart of Texas. SPEAKING OF BUGS: Friday marks the 50th anniversary of the zapping of mobster Benjamin (Don't Call Me Bugsy) Siegel. He was gunned down while reading a newspaper (if you must know, it was The Times) in the rented home of girlfriend Virginia Hill on North Linden Drive in Beverly Hills. She was not present for the event, having embarked on a vacation to Paris the day before.

Hey, being a mob moll is stressful. SECONDHAND SMOKES: Jennifer Black of Glendora spottad a sign that confessed to the reason a discount The right store for smokers; no butts about it. store had cigarettes on sale (see photo). MAYBE THE SCOREBOARD HAS SOME BUGS: The special-guests announcement that drew the biggest laugh on the scoreboard at the Long Beach Ice Dogs game the other night, reports Jeff Bliss, was the one that said: THE ICE DOGS WELCOME THE MIGHTY m. mm mmmm mm mm.

im.mmmmm.