Nate Holden

Los Angeles City Councilman Nate Holden said Monday that he plans to personally investigate a decision by the city clerk to certify Mayor Richard Riordan's petition drive to qualify a measure for the ballot. The measure would ask voters to create a reform panel to come up with fundamental changes in Los Angeles city government. Holden said he is suspicious of City Clerk J.

Los Angeles City Councilman Nate Holden on Wednesday introduced a motion urging his colleagues to oppose a proposed ballot measure that would seek to undo affirmative action programs in hiring and contracting by state agencies. No date has been set to consider the motion, which seeks to have the council go on record against the California "civil rights initiative," a proposed statewide measure that would challenge affirmative action.

With the June 6 election rapidly approaching, the political fund-raising pace in two hotly contested Los Angeles City Council races is not letting up, according to campaign statements. Candidate Michael Feuer, former head of a legal services clinic, has raised $180,900, while his opponent, Barbara Yaroslavsky, a longtime activist and the wife of county Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, has collected $176,400, the reports show.

Kevin Ross, a deputy district attorney who got enough votes in the 10th District City Council primary to force a runoff between incumbent Nate Holden and lawyer Stan Sanders, said Tuesday that he will back Holden in the June 6 contest. The endorsement was a surprise. Ross had run with the slogan, "It's time to stop holding out and get Holden out," and had worked for Sanders during the 1993 mayoral election, when Sanders ran against Holden in a field of 24 candidates.

A communications company wrote a letter of apology and agreed to pay $75,000 to Councilman Nate Holden to settle a 3-year-old libel suit, Holden said Tuesday. Holden's suit accused Blaine Group Inc. of libeling him in a letter alleging that he had influenced the schedule of a 1988 Transportation and Traffic Committee meeting on ambulance rate increases in return for contributions to the reelection campaign of Councilman John Ferraro.

Los Angeles City Councilman Nate Holden said a proposal he introduced Tuesday is aimed at stopping his council colleagues from renovating and remodeling their offices until the economy improves. Holden said some members continue to remodel their offices, while they have prevented him from redesigning his office, but he would not name them. "I'm not going to squeal on them," he said.

Los Angeles City Councilman Nate Holden said Thursday that he is forming a committee to explore a mayoral bid next year. Holden, who nearly forced Mayor Tom Bradley into a runoff three years ago, is the first candidate to file a declaration of intent to run for the office. The declaration allows him to begin raising funds for the campaign. "The goal of this exploratory committee is to see just what kind of support for me is out there," Holden said.

Melanie Lomax, an attorney for one of three women who have accused City Councilman Nate Holden of sexual harassment, said Thursday that she has removed herself from the case. Lomax said she will no longer represent Carla Cavalier, a former receptionist and field deputy for Holden, because her involvement has shifted attention from the issues of the case.

City Councilman and mayoral hopeful Nate Holden filed a countersuit Thursday for slander and libel against the first of three former women employees who have accused him of sexual harassment. Holden's lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court claims that onetime aide Carla Cavalier defamed him by claiming that he had made sexual advances toward her. Holden's attorney said Cavalier was treated fairly--receiving promotions and raises totaling $7,000--in her four years of employment.

A former aide to Los Angeles City Councilman Nate Holden filed a $2.5-million lawsuit Monday, accusing Holden of repeatedly subjecting her to sexual harassment during her four years in his office. Holden "regards women as second-class citizens and sexual objects," former aide Carla Cavalier said before the filing of the action in Los Angeles Superior Court. "What has happened to me has been a nightmare."