What’s in a name? Plenty if your neighbors get the wrong guy.

SORRY, WRONG NUMBER: Hermosa Beach residents Richard C. Sullivan, 45, and Richard Sullivan, 59, share similar names and the same hometown. So it had to happen sometime: One would make the news, but both would get the attention.

The elder Sullivan, a retired aerospace engineer and veteran civic activist, was among several people outraged by the annual Fourth of July Ironman Competition, in which contestants have to run a mile, paddle a mile on a surfboard and then chug a six-pack of beer without vomiting.

The younger Sullivan, a salesman who hasn’t been to a City Council meeting since the 1970s, strongly supports the contest, which he called a “wonderful event . . . (that) helps bring the city together.”

So it’s not surprising he was shocked to find two threatening messages on his answering machine this week from callers who mistook him for the Sullivan who wants the contest banned. “I hope we find you some day and show you what the Ironman is all about,” one of the messages said. (The elder Sullivan received similar messages on his answering machine.)

Fueling controversy over the competition, which drew 90 contestants who paid $15 entry fees, was the sponsorship of City Councilman Robert Benz. Benz, who placed second in the race, was among the organizers who decided to hold the drinking phase of the competition on the beach, a violation of city law. He said they took that step after a local homeowner who had offered her home for the revelers backed out at the last minute.

Benz, who has described the elder Sullivan as a “fun-hater,” said he was upset about the angry calls. “I can assure you that the people who are doing that aren’t really Ironmen,” Benz said. “We’re all mellow.”

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CASH FOR CLUNKERS: Along with newspapers, cans and glass, be sure to separate those ’67 Chevys for recycling.

Unocal Corp. blanketed the Wilmington area with flyers last week offering $700 for pre-1972 gas-guzzlers. Getting the cars off the road will offset Unocal’s plans not to equip its marine terminal at Los Angeles Harbor with vapor recovery equipment, at a cost of $5 million.

The trade-in program, created by the South Coast Air Quality Management District, is based on the theory that emissions from the old cars cause as much, if not more, noxious fumes than the terminal does. Unocal will get to put off retrofitting until at least 1996.

Used-car dealers beware: All cars have to be owned since 1990, with no registration lapses since then, and worst of all, fully operational.

“These can’t be vehicles that have been sitting in back yards and the registration has lapsed,” said Unocal spokesman Barry Lane. “You’ve got to be able to drive it in.”

The program is open to everyone, but the company gave first dibs to 60,000 Wilmington residents because they are closest to the Harbor. Unocal will take up to 350 cars.

Workers at a scrap yard in Los Angeles will take out the good parts for resale, and they will crush what’s left.

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LIVE-IN LANDLORD: Central Los Angeles is a long way from the South Bay, but it must never have seemed farther than when Rumhold Olenczuk left his comfortable Palos Verdes Estates home for a court-ordered stay at his problem-plagued Westlake district hotel.

It seems the 62-year-old landlord ran afoul of Los Angeles’ Slum Housing Task Force one too many times over conditions at his 96-room hotel at 744 S. Beacon St. Among the problems: broken fire doors, missing heaters and live, exposed electrical wires.

So after several appearances in court, city prosecutors and Olenczuk reached agreement July 7 that he would plead guilty to 10 violations of housing regulations at his hotel and spend 45 days there to serve his sentence. The so-called house arrest sentencing has been applied in several dozen cases prosecuted by the Los Angeles city attorney in the last decade.

Oh, and the court doesn’t just take someone’s word that he or she stayed put. Beginning at 10 a.m. last Wednesday, Olenczuk wore an electronic monitoring device on his ankle to make sure he doesn’t stray from the hotel until he finishes his sentence.

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NO PLACE TO GO: With the council poised to vote on a utility tax increase, Monday’s Hawthorne City Council meeting promised to be interesting. There was just one problem: The city clerk’s office forgot to post the agenda.

According to state law, copies of the agenda must be posted 72 hours before the council meeting. When it was discovered in Hawthorne on Monday that this hadn’t been done, the council meeting was canceled.

“There were a whole bunch of people who were going to be there,” said Mark Young, the leader of a referendum drive to overturn the proposed ordinance. “A lot of plans had been made, and a lot of plans had to be changed.”

A special meeting was held Friday, but since the government code prohibits the adoption of motions at special meetings, the controversial tax ordinance was not on the agenda.

City Clerk Richard L. Mansfield said this was the first time a council meeting had to be canceled because of absent-mindedness.

“I certainly hope it never happens again, at least while I’m here,” he said.

The next regular council meeting is Aug. 9.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“It’s more than just getting blitzed pretty quickly. It’s seeing friends you haven’t seen in a long time.”

Hermosa Beach Councilman Robert Benz, on the Fourth of July Ironman competition, a modified triathlon in which contestants have to run, swim and then chug a six-pack of beer without vomiting.