Ferraro Says He’d Fire Bradley’s Harbor Chief

Councilman John Ferraro, seizing upon some Harbor-area resentment over Mayor Tom Bradley’s handling of appointments to the Harbor Commission, Tuesday pledged that if he is elected mayor he would fire the current harbor commissioners and replace the general manager.

In a speech before a combined meeting of the San Pedro, Wilmington and Harbor City chambers of commerce, Ferraro signaled that he is going to place major emphasis on wooing the San Pedro-Harbor-area vote.

Ferraro must win “at least 50%” of the San Pedro-area vote to win, said the councilman’s campaign manager, Ron Smith, making that area “certainly equal to the (San Fernando) Valley” in importance in Ferraro’s uphill campaign.

Ferraro’s strategy calls for him to carry the more conservative sections of the San Fernando Valley. That, together with at least half the harbor-area vote, hoped for gains in Pacific Palisades, a strong vote in East Los Angeles and solid support in Ferraro’s mid-Wilshire council district are the ingredients of his plan for an upset victory.

Ferraro’s hopes in the San Pedro area center on Bradley’s appointment of Ezunial Burts as general manager of the harbor. No issue, according to Smith, “irked more San Pedro residents.”

The appointment of Burts, a former aide to Bradley, created a firestorm of protest from critics, who said Burts received the job because of favoritism, not merit. Burts, who had no previous experience managing a harbor, was appointed by the Harbor Commission, whose members are appointed by the mayor.

Burts’ name was suggested by then-Commissioner Charles Lloyd, a longtime associate and friend of the mayor. Bradley has said repeatedly that he did not influence Burts’ selection.

However, Ferraro said the commission appointments and Burts’ selection for the top harbor job are based on “political friendships.”

“Bradley took a clerk out of the mayor’s office and made him executive director of the port,” Ferraro said.

He said he would call for Burts’ resignation “within minutes of taking the oath of office.”

Ferraro, who accused Bradley of using the harbor “in a blatant power grab,” said as mayor he would “remove the commission the same way Tom Bradley did.”

He said if the current commissioners did not resign, he would try to replace them and direct them to “hire a boss who would have to know the job.” Ferraro said that would not be an abuse of his mayoral power, because “I’d be correcting a mistake.”

“I don’t think I’d have to tell them (his commissioners) to do it, I think they’d know that,” he said.

Mike Gage, Bradley’s campaign manager, said the port has prospered in Bradley’s administration and said Ferraro suggestion was an attempt to “manipulate” the harbor’s future.

Ferraro’s speech before the chambers of commerce was generally well received.

‘Too Strong’

“I agree with him,” said Roy Ferrin, president of the Harbor City Chamber of Commerce. “We need a change every eight years, otherwise one person gets too strong and forgets why he was put there to begin with.”

The Rev. Arthur R. Bartlett, a former harbor commissioner and one of 120 commissioners asked to resign by Bradley last year in a shake-up of all city commissions, said he was “really unhappy” that he could not complete the last two years of his term and said he would be “glad to help Ferraro if he needs help.”

However, Bob Garcia, president of the San Pedro Chamber of Commerce, said he believes that “Mayor Bradley has done some good things.”

“It’s easy to point at the guy at the top and find something wrong,” Garcia said. “Despite what he said, I’ve seen the port grow.”

San Pedro, a tightly knit community, includes many residents of largely Italian and Yugoslavian ancestry who have lived in the area for generations, making a living directly or indirectly from the harbor.