Ex-Board Member Under Consideration : Bartman Seeks Education Seat

Former Los Angeles Board of Education member Tom Bartman Wednesday formally announced he will ask the board to appoint him to the West San Fernando Valley seat vacated last month when David Armor resigned.

Armor, who was elected to the board last year after Bartman decided not to run for reelection, resigned to take a Department of Defense job.

Earlier this week, the board decided that the quickest and cheapest way to fill the vacancy is to appoint a successor until a special election can be held to coincide with city elections in June, 1987.

“I think I can be of service to my district and to the West Valley,” Bartman said. “I know the importance of the decisions that will be coming to the board in the next year and I think my presence can make a difference.”

Swift Reaction

Reaction of other candidates seeking the appointment was swift. A spokesman for Elizabeth Ginsburg, who is out of the country, said Ginsburg still plans to make a vigorous effort to get the appointment. And, in an attempt to enhance her chances with board members who do not want their appointee to run in the 1987 election, Ginsburg will agree not to enter that campaign, the spokesman said.

“Her reason is quite simple, the cost of campaigning. She spent a lot of her own money in last year’s election,” said Gary Lipton, the spokesman for Ginsburg. Ginsburg finished second behind Armor in the last school-board election.

Several board members have said they believe that Bartman would agree to serve for just a year, and then return to private life.

” . . . He doesn’t want to run again,” board member Roberta Weintraub said.

An administrative aide for state Sen. Ed Davis (R-Valencia), George St. Johns, who announced last week that he would seek to replace Armor, asserted that, although Bartman knows the workings of the district, he is out of step with the feelings of West Valley residents.

St. Johns said he does not believe that the board wants “a tough, outspoken person from this district at this time.” He added that he believes that a majority of the board members have already made up their minds to appoint Bartman.

But board President Rita Walters said the board has not made a decision.

“We will make our decision on May 19,” she said.