Thumbnail Sketches of Lottery Board Nominees

William J. Johnston, 58: Appointed to a five-year term. He was superintendent of the vast Los Angeles Unified School District from 1971-81. As such he was at the center of the storm as the district struggled for years to deal with court-ordered desegregation of schools. After his retirement, Johnston became manager of Southern California Gas Co.’s political action programs, which included making campaign contributions to state and federal candidates. In 1980, Johnston made an unsuccessful bid to be named president of USC. Additionally, he sought to be executive director for the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee. He also flirted with the idea of running in 1982 for state superintendent of public instruction but took the gas company post instead, a job he held until last year. His 10 years as chief of the city schools was the longest for a Los Angeles superintendent since Vierling Kersey, who left office before World War II. Several months before he retired, Johnston issued an appeal to then-Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr. and the Legislature to enact a new school financing program that would provide more money for schools. At his new post, Johnston will help oversee a statewide lottery that is intended to contribute additional support for education.

John M. Price, 65: Appointed to a four-year term, he served as district attorney of Sacramento County for a record four terms, from 1959 to 1979, when he was defeated for reelection. As a prosecutor, he occasionally tried cases. His last case was that of Aaron Mitchell, convicted of the murder of a police officer. Mitchell was executed in 1967, the last person to die in the California gas chamber. Price’s tenure as district attorney rolled along largely untroubled by controversy. However, in 1975 he filed a lawsuit that sought to block a local Civil Service hiring rule that gave preferential treatment to minorities. For his own office, the rule proposed hiring one minority group member for every two whites hired from the Civil Service list. In 1978, Price joined the effort to oust California Chief Justice Rose Elizabeth Bird from the state Supreme Court. She narrowly won confirmation. Price received his law degree in 1948 from Boalt Hall at the University of California. He was a deputy district attorney in Sacramento County from 1949-51, when he joined a private law firm. He fills a slot on the lottery commission reserved for a representative of law enforcement.

Laverta S. Montgomery, 48: Appointed to a five-year term, she has been city manager of Compton since 1982. She started her career with Compton as an accountant in 1971 and three years later became director of redevelopment and housing. Subsequently, she was named city controller. A widow with four grown children, Montgomery set out three years ago as city manager to clear away the thicket of bureaucratic red tape in city government. She recalled in an interview a year after taking office that complaints from citizens inundated City Hall, complaints that were not being resolved. “So I told my department managers that they had to get out and do their jobs, and if they did, they wouldn’t have complaints. Today, the number of complaints has been reduced dramatically.” One of her first moves was to eliminate the positions of two of three assistant city managers. “My feeling was, if you can take away an assistant manger’s position, you can (afford to) keep two or three laborers on the street.” Montgomery has cited the Town Center shopping mall in Compton as an example of her ability to get things done in government. She noted that for years, the proposal never left the drawing boards. Finally, she said, the city decided to cut through all the glue and get the project built. And, it did so.

Howard E. Varner, 59: Appointed to a two-year term, he is chairman of the board and former president of Host International Inc. of Santa Monica, a major restaurant organization with a reported $500 million in annual gross revenues. Host is one of the nation’s biggest operators of airport terminal food and beverage services. It was established in 1897 to sell food on railroads. Varner, a native of Chicago and a graduate of the University of Illinois with a degree in banking and finance, joined Host as an accounts clerk in 1949. He became corporate treasurer in 1956, vice president of finance in 1963, president in 1969 and chairman of the board in 1980.

Kennard W. Webster, 64: Appointed to a three-year term, he is a former partner in the national accounting firm of DeLoitte Haskins & Sells. A certified public accountant, he was graduated from Bentley College and was awarded an accounting degree from Niagara University in 1947. Webster subsequently held several top management positions in the firm. He was appointed to fill a slot designated for an accountant on the lottery commission.