The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • Page 35

LOCAL NEWS WEATHER EDITORIALS SECTION THURSDAY Cos Attacks Suucs FEBRUARY 10, 2000 CC METRO I rrr7 7 it 0 LA. Unified Rushed Its Environmental Studies, Critics Say Education: Most applications for new schools were rejected, state official says. Contractor criticizes staff dismissals and calls for action to be rescinded. GINAFERAZZI Los Angeles Times PERRY C. RIDDLE Los Angeles Times Incumbent Dist.

Atty. Gil Garcetti, above left, is being challenged by Barry Groveman, above right, who is an environmental defense lawyer, as well as Steve Cooley, chief deputy in Garcetti's office. LU1SSINCO Los Angeles Times Garcetti Staying Far Away From Campaign Prosecutor: Twice in two weeks, the incumbent has frustrated his challengers by avoiding confrontations. contamination and in some cases even lacking on-site inspections, she said. Coler's blunt critique of the district's environmental work, was followed by sharp words from Alan Krusi, president of O'Brien Kreitz-berg, one of the partners in the joint venture that serves as the district's school repair and construction manager.

Last week the district fired six employees of the joint venture, 3DI-0'Brien Kreitzberg. Krusi charged the firings were retaliation for the employees' pointing out problems with the school repair and construction effort. The money was authorized by Proposition BB, which voters passed in 1997. Krusi called on Supt. Ramon C.

Cortines to rescind the firings and warned that the staff cutbacks would damage the effort to repair and build schools. "It is vital we re-Please see SCHOOLS, BS By JEFFREY RABIN TIMES STAFF WRITER In a double dose of bad news, critics Wednesday attacked the Los Angeles Unified School District's environmental work on potential new school sites and its recent firing of key staff who worked on its massive school repair and construction program. Appearing before the Proposition BB Citizens Oversight Committee, Barbara Coler, a division chief with the state Department of Toxic Substances Control, said the district had rushed to complete a review of potential new school sites and had failed to perform adequate environmental assessments. As a result, 58 of the district's 60 initial applications were rejected by the state and will require much more detailed environmental analysis, Coler said. The district's work was substandard, missing critical information about potential has grabbed public attention so far in this year's race.

Garcetti would just as soon keep it that way. With the nonpartisan election now less than a month away, challengers Steve Cooley and Barry Groveman are trying to raise public awareness of the campaign and to tie Garcetti to the Rampart police scandal, which they say he has mishandled. But they have been frustrated by his refusal to debate or otherwise engage in the give-and-take of a campaign. "We want to bring this guy Gil Garcetti into this campaign so we can discuss real issues," Cooley told members of the Criminal Courts Bar Assn. on Tuesday, when the organization held what was supposed to be a debate by the three candidates.

As was the case the week before, at a candidates' forum held by the Assistant District Attorneys only Cooley and Groveman took part. The tactic infuriated both challengers and lawyers sponsoring the event. "I think it stinks," said Stephen Sadowsky, treasurer of the Criminal Courts Bar Assn. "I think the public has a right and a need to hear the positions on the issues." Added Richard Hutton, a member of the defense lawyers' group: Please see GARCETTI, B6 his accomplishments to friendly audiences and generally acting as if he had no opposition at all. After his squeaker of a victory in 1996 against a former deputy, John Lynch, Garcetti is playing it safe.

"He's not doing a campaign, per se," said his campaign consultant, Bill Carrick. And in contrast to the last election, which was overshadowed by the embarrassing loss by Garcetti's office in the O.J. Simpson case, there is no overarching issue that By MITCHELL LANDSBERG TIMES STAFF WRITER His opponents are calling him "the stealth candidate." They claim to have put out an all-points bulletin for him. But Dist. Atty.

Gil Garcetti isn't so hard to find. In the midst of his second reelection campaign, he's spending time in his 18th-floor office in the Criminal Courts Building, periodically slipping out to tout Settlement of Hospital Bias Suits Urged Courts: Two white KingDrew doctors who allege discrimination could get $540,000. Compton Suspends 4 Officers Over Protest Dispute: They allegedly disrupted council meeting as tensions rise between mayor and police. At 'J1 MsM.j Kyi re 3k '''111' Vv I I III "I ana fcrmrss Photos by CARLOS CHAVEZ Los Angeles Times Jose Carmen Corona stacks crates of strawberries in Camanllo, where growers are weeks ahead of harvesting schedules Strawberry Yields Forever? Well, Almost By NICHOLAS RICCARDI TIMES STAFF WRITER A Los Angeles County panel has irecommended paying $540,000 in public money to settle lawsuits by two emergency-room physicians at Martin Luther King Jr. Drew Medical Center who allege that they were discriminated against ibecause they are white.

Between the two of them, Jonathan Wasserberger and Gary Or-dog filed more than 140 employment grievances before alleging in a pair of 1998 lawsuits that the African Americans who headed emergency medicine at the hospital south of Watts subjected them to harassment and threats because of their race. The Board of Supervisors is scheduled to consider the proposed settlements Feb. 29. The recommendation this week from the county's claims board comes on the heels of an appeals court's upholding of a scathing county Civil Service Commission's ruling that KingDrew has an "unwritten policy of maintaining itself as a black institution and of placing black candidates in positions of leadership to the exclusion of non-blacks." That appeals decision last month was in the case of a doctor of Sri Lankan ancestry and former head of the hospital's emergency medicine department who was repeatedly passed over in his efforts to regain his post. The appeals court ordered that a Superior Court begin a trial to determine the monetary damages due to Dr.

Subra-maniam Balasubramaniam, or Dr. Bala, as he is known to his colleagues. Rees Lloyd, the lawyer who has represented all three plaintiffs, said Wednesday that the three cases demonstrate "a pattern and practice of black racial discrimination at MLKDrew Medical Center which has been tacitly condoned by the Board of Supervisors." Lloyd noted that Balasubraman-iam's legal complaints date to 1985 and that his attorney then was Yvonne Brathwaite Burke now the county supervisor whose district includes the hospital. In an interview, Burke said the medical center has the most diverse group of department heads in the county. "Reverse discrimination is a popular issue," Burke said.

"You can go into every hospital in this Please see BIAS, B6 By BOBBY CUZA TIMES STAFF WRITER An ongoing power struggle between the Compton police force and Mayor Omar Bradley took a new turn Wednesday when the city announced suspensions of at least four officers for their alleged disruption of Tuesday's City Council meeting. Tensions between Compton officers and the city's leadership have been simmering since August, when Police Chief Hourie Taylor and Capt. Percy Perrodin were abruptly dismissed without public explanation. Last month, the Compton Police Officers Assn. responded with a vote of no confidence in the mayor and city manager.

And now, the city has commissioned a study into disbanding the department and contracting instead with the county Sheriff's Department. At Tuesday's City Council meeting, those tensions boiled over after about 10 police officers arrived while the meeting was in progress. According to Det. Ed Aguirre, one of the suspended officers, they came after hearing that the mayor had made disparaging remarks about the department. Aguirre said they also heard there were 30 to 40 men in the audience who appeared to be bodyguards for Mayor Bradley.

When a police officer flashed a camera at them, a heated confrontation ensued. "That's when it got crazy," said Aguirre, president of the Compton Police Officers Assn. The bodyguards "immediately surrounded us. They were using racial slurs, they were using profanity, they were trying to provoke us into a fight." The mayor's office had a different explanation of Tuesday's events. At a news conference in front of City Hall on Wednesday, city spokesman Frank Wheaton said police officers were respon-Please see COMPTON, B5 1 fickle and that any stretch of bad weather can quickly spoil their fortunes.

"This plant is coming on full tilt," said strawberry farmer Cecil Martinez. Production is about six weeks ahead of schedule at his 88-acre Ventura County ranch. "But somewhere along the line, somebody in control higher than me always throws a monkey wrench into things," he said. "In this business, you learn to take it when you can get it." In Ventura County, the larger yields also are a result of a record number of plantings. With 7,600 acres in production this season, the county is the second-largest strawberry growing region in California, trailing only the Watsonville-Salinas area.

The acreage represents a 13 increase over last year and a 70 jump since 1994, when 4,449 acres were dedicated to strawberry production. Statewide, acreage increased 7.1 over last year, with 26,340 acres in production this season. "The demand is very high for strawberries, and growers are responding with increased acreage and varieties that have more yield," Jordan said. It's impossible to tell whether the higher- than-normal yields in Southern California will be mirrored in Northern California, where the season starts three months later. Oxnard strawberry grower David Murray said it's also impossible to tell whether this area will continue to be blessed by such good growing weather.

The Oxnard Plain still faces the threat of frost. And the skies have been known to open up in February and March, bringing torrents of rain and bad news for growers. "The yield is there, the pickers are happy because they're looking at a real good season from the standpoint of making money," said Murray. "But it can change in an instant. We have to be careful not to get too optimistic." Agriculture: Growers report a dazzling season, three times better than last year, meaning low prices and full grocery shelves.

By FRED ALVAREZ TIMES STAFF WRITER Strawberry production across Southern California is three times greater this season than it was a year ago, with a mild winter providing a lightning quick start to this year's harvest. The heavy yields will mean an abundance of berries on supermarket shelves over the next month, a bonanza expected to drive down prices but still produce a windfall for berry farmers. California Farm Bureau spokesman Bob Krauter said prices could drop as low as $1 a pound, half of what strawberries cost this time last year. "This has been one of the best starts in years for the strawberry industry," Krauter said. "I think the fact that the season is off to such a strong start is good for both farmers and consumers." Growers from Oxnard to Orange County report they are weeks ahead of harvesting schedules, with strawberry fields in those areas benefiting from Southern California's mild winter little rain, generally warm overnight temperatures and few threats of freezing.

Statewide, growers have produced 2.6 million crates of strawberries so far this season, the bulk of those 1.8 million coming from Ventura County's Oxnard Plain. The Orange County and San Diego districts have produced 764,000 crates this season. Last year at this same time, strawberry growers statewide had produced 778,000 crates. Cecil Martinez examines a row of strawberries that are about to be harvested. I "The growing conditions are just ideal right now, especially in the southern end of the state," said Dominique Jordan, spokeswoman for the California Strawberry Commission.

"Heading into 2000, with the ultimate growing conditions you can look for record volume this year." Locally, crop yields were held back last year by some rain and a brutal cold snap that gripped the region and slowed production. So although they are pleased with this year's crop, farmers know that berries are iOnlyinL.A B3 1 Lottery B3. 1 Weather B7 1 Editorials B8 1 Commentary B9 Columnist Shawn Hubler has the day off. 1.