Rudolph Jr Svorinich

On at least three occasions last year, campaign contributions to Los Angeles Councilman Rudy Svorinich Jr. were brought to his San Pedro district office despite a ban on such political activity in city offices, five former Svorinich aides have told The Times. Further, one of the aides says that last year he saw Svorinich with an envelope of campaign checks--from Ft. Worth, Tex., contributors--totaling thousands of dollars.

After days of controversy, former Los Angeles City Councilman Rudy Svorinich Jr. said he has decided to turn down a $3,800-a-month job as a transportation consultant for Councilman Nate Holden. Svorinich, who left office in June, said Monday that he is preparing to start his own consulting firm, after a summer of vacationing with his family. He told Holden in a letter that he appreciated the "very kind opportunity" to join his staff.

Three minutes before the legal deadline, the Los Angeles City Council on Monday switched the location for today's session in San Pedro, fearing that apparent sexism at the private club where it was scheduled would keep lawmakers away and prevent the council from having a quorum. The 11th-hour decision turned a gesture of outreach to the far-flung Harbor district into a political embarrassment for Councilman Rudy Svorinich Jr.

As his office was peppered with calls from angry constituents, Los Angeles City Councilman Nate Holden on Wednesday defended his decision to place two termed-out colleagues on the public payroll at a monthly cost of $7,600. Mike Hernandez and Rudy Svorinich Jr., who left office on June 30 and were prevented by term limits from running again, will serve as Holden's part-time consultants on a variety of issues, including transportation and housing matters.

Several members of the Los Angeles City Council are considering boycotting their scheduled meeting Tuesday at a private club in San Pedro out of concern that the club may discriminate against women and at one time prohibited them from becoming full-fledged members who could vote and share in club assets.

Driven by intense disillusionment with the political status quo, Los Angeles voters have made the most significant changes in the city's elected leadership in recent history. With four new members to be seated July 1, the once seemingly static Los Angeles City Council will have experienced an almost 50% turnover in just two years, the biggest movement in the city's elected ranks since at least World War II.

When Reseda and San Pedro high schools meet on the gridiron tonight, more will be at stake than just the right to play in the city championship next week. Also riding on the game will be bragging rights among the members of the Los Angeles City Council. Councilwoman Laura Chick, whose district includes Reseda High, said Thursday that a "friendly cross-town wager" had been finalized with Councilman Rudy Svorinich, whose district includes San Pedro High.

Rudy Svorinich gave his new peers a lesson in the phonetic intricacies of his last name. Laura Chick learned where they keep the junk food. Jackie Goldberg struggled all day to find a working phone line. And Richard Alarcon had to fight off one of the upperclassmen to keep his desk. The Los Angeles City Council, Class of 1993, got down to a first full day of business Friday that had all the makings of a back-to-school session.

Looking at the four Los Angeles City Council seats at stake in the June 8 election, the potential for change is clear--the council will get at least two new faces and possibly as many as four, depending on the fortunes of longtime incumbents Joy Picus and Joan Milke Flores. But to call this a season of upheaval at City Hall would be a mistake. Maybe downright misleading. Because none of the council candidates is really a stranger to local politics.

When I drove down to Watts to hear freshman Los Angeles City Councilman Rudy Svorinich Jr. speak last Tuesday night, it was mainly out of curiosity to see how this white politician of Croatian descent would relate to his Latino and African American constituents. I've read, and written, how L.A. is a city on the edge, torn by racial and social tensions, with the epicenter in poor neighborhoods where Latinos and African Americans, living side by side, scrap for survival in a bleak economy.

It's Christmas time in the city, the old carol says, but no one would ever know it in San Pedro. The port town's holiday decorations haven't been hung with care. In fact, they haven't been hung at all. In a local tempest that has dampened San Pedro's holiday spirit, merchants say their Los Angeles city councilman, Rudy Svorinich Jr., has stubbornly refused to release $8,000 in business improvement district funds earmarked for holiday promotions and to put up Christmas trimmings around town.

Los Angeles Councilman Rudy Svorinich Jr. sees his chances of winning the 54th Assembly District election in football terms, a nod to the rough character of that close contest in Long Beach and the South Bay. "We'll both get to each other's five yard line by ourselves," the Republican Svorinich said of his bid against one-term Democratic incumbent Alan Lowenthal (D-Long Beach). "But you need the guy at the top of the ticket to get you to the goal."

Harbor District Councilman Rudy Svorinich Jr. announced a joint venture Thursday between the Community Redevelopment Agency and Regal Cinemas to build a 14-screen motion theater complex in downtown San Pedro that is expected to give the area an economic boost. The 50,000-square-foot multiplex will be located on Center Street between 6th and 7th streets, officials said. The project is part of an overall CRA plan to revitalize the Beacon Street area of San Pedro.

More than 30 years ago, in an alliance that would one day transform Los Angeles politics, a group of black ministers and Jewish activists joined forces to help a little-known lawyer and former police officer become the first African American elected to the City Council.

About 20 Watts residents, including half a dozen children, braved the rain Tuesday afternoon and marched down 103rd Avenue to the office of City Councilman Rudy Svorinich Jr. to complain about nuisance abandoned houses and other urban perils. Members of the Assn. of Community Organizations for Reform Now said they have been trying since the August slaying of 82-year-old Viola McClain--which followed the gang rape of a 13-year-old girl in a vacant home--to meet with Svorinich, but to no avail.

Three minutes before the legal deadline, the Los Angeles City Council on Monday switched the location for today's session in San Pedro, fearing that apparent sexism at the private club where it was scheduled would keep lawmakers away and prevent the council from having a quorum. The 11th-hour decision turned a gesture of outreach to the far-flung Harbor district into a political embarrassment for Councilman Rudy Svorinich Jr.

The center at 19401 S. Vermont Ave. will provide meeting and work space for Svorinich's staff, the local chamber of commerce and the Harbor City/Harbor Gateway Boys and Girls Club. The center will also be available for police officers to write reports. The hope, Svorinich spokesman Barry Glickman said, is that the center will help keep more patrol officers in the neighborhood by freeing them from having to drive to Harbor station in San Pedro to write reports.

Councilman Rudy Svorinich Jr. has begun looking for a new field deputy for the Watts area to replace Nicole Jones, who has taken a job with state Assemblyman Kevin Murray (D-Los Angeles). Barry Glickman, Svorinich's chief of staff, said the councilman's office began reviewing candidates this week to replace Jones, who left her community liaison position at the end of last year.

Several members of the Los Angeles City Council are considering boycotting their scheduled meeting Tuesday at a private club in San Pedro out of concern that the club may discriminate against women and at one time prohibited them from becoming full-fledged members who could vote and share in club assets.