Gadfly Throws a Birthday Bashing for City Council Celebrants

Los Angeles City Council President John Ferraro celebrated his 73rd birthday on Wednesday with glee and with grief. The glee was provided by his fellow council members, who halted the proceedings at their regular meeting to sing “Happy Birthday” to the blushing former football star.

As it turned out, Councilman Mike Feuer also celebrated his birthday on Wednesday, his 39th, so the song was dedicated to both lawmakers.

Leading the group of politician crooners was Councilman Joel Wachs, whose energetic rendition of the familiar tune prompted Councilman Hal Bernson to comment: “Don’t quit your day job, Joel.”

The grief came soon after from Samuel S. Shiffler, a regular gadfly who launched into a diatribe against Ferraro and Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti. The theme of the attack was unclear to most listeners, but the gadfly was apparently upset about the O.J. Simpson verdict and suggested it had something to do with Garcetti and Ferraro both being Italian. (Garcetti, by the way, prides himself on being Latino.)

Ferraro was incensed. He and several colleagues discussed whether they could prevent Shiffler from speaking before the council again.

But in all likelihood, the Constitution will ensure that Ferraro will hear more of this brand of free speech well past his next birthday.

Dog Tales The latest chapter in the case of the Encino pug that was skinned alive last month shows that the saga becomes stranger with each passing day.

The city’s Animal Services Department released new information two weeks ago to support its contention that the dog, named Pal, was the victim of a coyote attack.

But the local chapter of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals stuck by its position that Pal was sadistically skinned by a knife-wielding human.

Regardless of the dispute, the Los Angeles City Council chipped in $5,000 for information leading to the arrest of the dog’s killer. The money was added to a reward pool of $21,000 offered by animal lovers and celebrities.

But now, the conflicting theories have given the largest contributor second thoughts.

Calabasas attorney Leo Schwarz represents an anonymous woman who contributed $10,000 to the reward pool.

Schwarz wrote to the SPCA last week to say that his client would withdraw the money unless “satisfactory evidence is presented to her, through my office, on either the cause of the dog’s death or the likelihood of an imminent arrest.”

The SPCA responded with a letter that named the two private veterinarians who examined the dog and believe it was killed by a human. The SPCA also offered to let the woman and her lawyer examine all the evidence in the case.

With that, Schwarz said his client decided not to withdraw the money for the time being.

Ironically, the SPCA still refuses to let the Animal Services Department examine its evidence “because of the way this has become a political football,” said Madeline Bernstein, executive director of the SPCA’s local chapter.

Meanwhile, Schwarz and his client are caught between the feuding agencies, not knowing who to believe.

“We are going to sit back and watch,” he said. “It’s getting really crazy.”

Rail Splitter Never a boring interview, Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky created a stir when he launched into a stinging critique of the MTA on public television recently.

“I am very close to suggesting that the MTA put itself into receivership and let the governor take it over, or the state Department of Transportation, and run it,” Yaroslavsky told “Life and Times” host Hugh Hewitt.

The 3rd District supervisor also said that he would be willing to lead a repeal of Propositions A and C--sales taxes that help fund the agency--if the MTA “didn’t clean up their act” by hiring a new CEO, among other things.

The comments came after an audit revealed that design costs for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Pasadena Light Rail Project had ballooned from $47 million to $94 million.

The MTA, Yaroslavsky said, is “too factionalized. It’s too corrupt. It’s too out of touch with public scrutiny, and strange things are happening and the public is not being well-served.”

Noted Hewitt after Zev left: “Yaroslavsky came here and burned all of his bridges to every member of the MTA . . . and left behind the unmistakable aroma of impending indictments.”

Mixing It Up There might be more than the usual sparks flying between Mike Antonovich and Gloria Molina at Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting about the expansion of the Chiquita Canyon Landfill in Val Verde.

The Val Verde Civic Assn. and Laidlaw Waste Systems Inc. agreed this week to prohibit anyone who is not a U.S. citizen from making decisions about how potentially millions of dollars in a community benefits fund (bankrolled by the trash firm) will be used by the town in return for accepting the dump expansion.

The civic association--which has been criticized by Latino residents for not representing the interests of the entire town in the dump battle--is Antonovich’s official representative in the rural Santa Clarita Valley community.

Three months ago, as the board approved the landfill expansion, Molina asked the civic association and the trash hauler to develop a plan to elect a local body that was “inclusive” of the entire ethnically mixed community.

But unlike Antonovich, Molina apparently does not believe that limiting the decision to U.S. citizens is inclusive enough.

“If they are proposing something that would limit the decision to registered voters, that does not go nearly far enough,” said Molina spokesman Michael Bustamante.

“If you are seeking to be inclusive, you need to have more people involved, for example, people who pay taxes [in Val Verde],” Bustamante said.

Stay tuned.

QUOTABLE: “It’s going to be a war.” Political consultant Rick Taylor, on the prospect

of a state Senate contest between former Assemblyman Richard Katz and City Councilman Richard Alarcon