Phyllis Currie

Perhaps the best testimony to Phyllis Currie's insistent and persistent leadership came last January when, amid ongoing celebrations of the successful Mars rover mission, NASA Deputy Administrator Fred Gregory came to Pasadena to attend two community meetings and assure locals that the space agency was working hard to resolve their decades-old problem--water more than 200 feet below the surface of the renowned Jet Propulsion Laboratory that was contaminated during JPL's early rocket testing

Perhaps the best testimony to Phyllis Currie's insistent and persistent leadership came last January when, amid ongoing celebrations of the successful Mars rover mission, NASA Deputy Administrator Fred Gregory came to Pasadena to attend two community meetings and assure locals that the space agency was working hard to resolve their decades-old problem--water more than 200 feet below the surface of the renowned Jet Propulsion Laboratory that was contaminated during JPL's early rocket testing

An insurance executive, a utilities official and the former city administrator are among six appointees to an oversight committee that will keep an eye on Proposition F, the nearly $533-million bond measure passed by voters last year. The measure will fund 19 new neighborhood fire and paramedic stations and an emergency helicopter and air operations center at Van Nuys Airport. Eight animal shelters will be renovated or expanded.

The Los Angeles City Council voted Friday to exempt a Wall Street investment firm from a city anti-apartheid law so that it can help finance construction of a Holocaust museum on the city's Westside. The action came as Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky released a report showing that the vote was not a rare departure inasmuch as city officials and the council have granted 300 such exemptions since the law was enacted in 1986.

There were angry words, hard stares and impugned motives, and finally spilled tears in the corridor. And, as with any cheap melodrama, there was even a baby doll. This was no Hollywood set, or even the county courthouse. It all occurred Tuesday on the second floor of Los Angeles City Hall, the latest episode in a 5-year feud over the composting of garbage, played out before a sometimes exasperated, often amused audience of city officials, political aides and reporters.

A month ago, members of the Los Angeles City Council were talking about what a tight-knit group they were and how great things were ahead for the city. But the panel has recently feuded over two big issues: hiring the next chief legislative analyst and whether the city should continue hauling trash to the Sunshine Canyon Landfill.

Each year, customers who visit the commercial districts of Northeast Los Angeles plunk about $142,000 worth of quarters, dimes and nickels into the area's 1,200 parking meters. Under a program designed to make Los Angeles' many small business districts more accessible to customers, these revenues, as well as funds generated by the city's other 28,800 parking meters, are put aside in trust funds to buy parking lots and install meters.

Sister Anne, a slight woman, goes out in a van three days a week to bring food, toiletries, blankets and first aid to homeless women in MacArthur Park, Pico-Union, Echo Park and other areas near downtown Los Angeles. If they want help, she brings them to the emergency center of the Good Shepherd Center for Homeless Women in Echo Park. Thirty women are cared for there.

Pasadena Water and Power customers got an interesting bit of mail last month: a personal plea from Arnold Schwarzenegger. But it wasn't a pitch for his latest Hollywood blockbuster. It was about their utility bill. Some 60,000 Pasadena utility customers are slated to receive power rebates totaling $14.9 million this summer. And that money, Schwarzenegger's plea suggested, could support after-school programs.

A behind-the-scenes power struggle over control of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power's $5-billion pension fund spilled into public view Thursday in a rancorous meeting in which hundreds of angry current and former employees repeatedly booed the utility's folksy general manager. By the end of a two-hour showdown, the department's leader, S.

To beef up the Police Department, Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan intends to dip into the Department of Water and Power pension fund, which he says is so conservatively run that more than $40 million can be spared immediately. But angry DWP employees and retirees see the issue differently. They are calling Riordan's plan a raid and intend to lobby the DWP Retirement Board, which is charged with managing the fund. "What Riordan is doing . . .