Night Out Is All in Day’s Work for Bradley Aide : At a Banquet or in the Office, She Takes the Bows--and the Heat--for Mayor

Mayor Tom Bradley could not attend the honorary roast in San Pedro. So Christine Ung was out for another night on the town.

The Los Angeles mayor’s South Bay aide--her black hair stylishly coiffed, her dangling jeweled earrings accenting a sleek white gown--was on a banquet stop for good politics. She was conferring a city commendation on Jeremiah Bresnahan, a popular toastmaster for harbor-area clubs and business groups.

About 200 San Pedro dignitaries--mostly businessmen and community representatives--were gathered at the Princess Louise Pavilion, an old, pastel-colored ballroom at the water’s edge. Lighted cargo vessels moved silently past the big view windows as Ung mixed with the crowd and applauded speaker after speaker from a head table.

Her own talk lasted no more than two minutes. She described emcee Bob McVey, a Marine Corps captain, as “our favorite captain,” and told one quick, inside joke about Bresnahan that drew roars from the crowd.

That and a few glowing smiles were enough to underscore the mayor’s community presence.

Important Function

“It may seem kind of superficial,” Ung said of such appearances. “But it’s really important to a lot of organizations to have a mayor’s representative at their events.”

Gracious, soft-spoken, seemingly shy of the public spotlight, Ung, who lives in Gardena, is that representative in the South Bay, in a district that includes San Pedro, Wilmington, Harbor City and the Harbor Gateway strip. Her job involves award dinners one night, community problems the next. Her speech at the banquet followed a press conference on foreign trade and a tour of a proposed Air Force housing development at White Point Park in San Pedro.

“I wear different hats,” Ung said, describing herself as one of six geographic-area coordinators who help Bradley run Los Angeles. “We’re essentially the mayor’s eyes and ears. Whenever there’s a problem, we try to take care of it, and we also inform the mayor about the problem.”

The role has earned Ung mixed reviews. Business leaders say they are generally pleased with the way she and the mayor’s office have worked to revitalize San Pedro’s flagging downtown commercial district and to assist the embattled fishing industry. Ung was the mayor’s representative on the Fishing Industry Task Force, a group of fishermen and public officials that met over several months this year to develop possible remedies for the industry’s many problems.

Criticized in Wilmington

But some neighborhood groups, particularly in Wilmington, criticize the low profile taken by Bradley and Ung. Peter Mendoza, president of the 500-member Wilmington Homeowners Assn., said the two are largely out of touch with residents and are difficult to reach when community problems arise.

“People here in Wilmington have some rightful gripes,” Mendoza said. “We’ve got planning problems. Our neighborhood’s being overrun by heavy trucks. All you have to do is run by any street in Wilmington and you see these heavy trucks . . . running down to the harbor.

“(But) the mayor’s office . . . is not really tuned in to us,” he said. “They are so remote . . . it’s like trying to talk to (President) Reagan or something. If you took a grass-roots poll of people like myself and you ask who Chris Ung is, I’d give you a buck for everyone who knows who she is and what she does.”

Ung denied that she is difficult to reach or that the mayor has been unresponsive. “I’m available by phone,” she said. “Our doors are always open. Actually, a lot of things are being done in Wilmington. We’re having a big cleanup program down there to get rid of abandoned cars, to get industry to beautify (the area). We try the best we can.”

Works Behind Scenes

But even her supporters describe Ung as a soft-spoken aide who rarely steals the public spotlight. Perhaps more than any of Bradley’s other geographic representatives, Ung presents a quiet, dignified public image and does much of her work behind the scenes, according to Bernie Evans, chief deputy for harbor-area City Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores.

“Chris is understated,” Evans said. “But she is very consistent and firm in her views. She doesn’t have to jump up and down to make a point.”

Evans said Ung often works closely with Flores’ office to handle South Bay problems ranging from potholes in the streets to litter at oil-drilling sites. Most of the smaller concerns are handled by the council office, Ung said. Larger issues often involve the two offices acting in concert.

One recent example has been the continuing negotiations over White Point Park, a former Nike missile base between 25th Street and Paseo del Mar, where the U.S. Air Force has developed plans to build extensive military housing.

Controversial Issue

The city and the Air Force have been at odds over where that housing should go and how much of the 114-acre park should remain open land. Evans said one round of talks last month ended with about a dozen San Pedro-area political representatives meeting among themselves to consider the latest Air Force counterproposal--a plan to extend housing just south of a natural ridge dividing the property.

Evans said Ung led arguments to reject the proposal, a recommendation that was later adopted by Bradley and the City Council. Air Force officials have since presented a compromise plan that is now under study, he said.

“It wasn’t her way to say a lot at the meetings,” Evans said, “but she had a very firm point of view. I think Chris feels comfortable she can express her opinion to the mayor and she doesn’t have to pull any punches.”

Bradley described Ung as one of his most effective area coordinators.

“She has an innate ability to identify problems and resolve conflicts,” he said. “Due to her handling of issues related to the South Bay, I feel that area of Los Angeles is as well represented as if I had the time to be in the South Bay myself every day.”

Ung’s undemonstrative style seems to closely parallel Bradley’s own, one city official commented. Polite but guarded, Ung declines, for example, to disclose her age, saying only that she “grew up during the ‘60s.” She said family influences helped shape her interest in community service.

Grandfather Aided Immigrants

Her late grandfather, John Lim, was president of the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Assn., a support group for immigrants trying to make a start in America. Her great uncle, Peter SooHoo, was a founder of Chinatown.

Growing up in Los Angeles, where her father was a grocery-store checker and her mother a bank teller, Ung was the eldest of three children. She described her childhood environment as lower-middle class, but happy. She was well-off enough to take piano lessons.

“We always had enough to eat and a warm bed--I guess that’s the main thing,” she said. But she also noted, “I’ve always had an empathy for the poor . . . I have a social work mentality.”

After receiving her bachelor’s degree in sociology from California State University, Los Angeles, in 1972, Ung learned of a job opening in Bradley’s office. She served the office in several advisory roles before taking over the South Bay region in 1980.

Writes Mayor’s Speeches

Her duties involve appearing in Bradley’s stead at community events, writing speeches for Bradley, and meeting with the mayor at least once a month to brief him on major issues in the area. One of those sessions occurred last fall just before the fishing industry’s October fiesta and luncheon, Ung said. It led to the creation of the mayor’s Fishing Industry Task Force.

“I knew (fishermen) were having problems,” Ung said. “We made it a point to have the mayor attend the luncheon. He talked with the fishermen, and he was very moved by their situation.”

Frank Iacono, head of the Fishermen’s Cooperative Assn., a trade group representing the 27-vessel fleet, described Ung as an effective participant in the monthly task force meetings. The meetings produced proposals to construct new fish-unloading facilities in San Pedro and to set up a trust fund to offset rising insurance costs.

Fishermen are now pursuing state funding for those efforts.

“I didn’t know her before,” Iacono said. “She went out of her way to help the fishing fleet. She’s a very intelligent young lady.”

Missed Anti-Drug Rally

Ung conceded that scheduling conflicts have kept her and Bradley from attending some community meetings in the district. When Wilmington residents held a community-wide anti-drug rally several weeks ago, for example, none of Bradley’s representatives appeared. Offended organizers characterized it as a sign of his unconcern.

“(Bradley) doesn’t really pay attention to Wilmington,” commented Jo Ann Wysocki, president of the Harbor Coalition Against Toxic Waste, who noted that the mayor’s office also has failed to attend at least three community meetings on toxic-waste issues during the last three years. “The joke around Wilmington is, the only time he comes around is when he’s running for something.”

Ung said she does not recall why the mayor’s office was unrepresented at the toxic-waste meetings. But on the day of the recent anti-drug rally, she said, “unfortunately, the mayor was out of the city . . . and I was also out of the city, on vacation.”

As a fifth-generation Chinese-American, Ung also serves as Bradley’s liaison to Los Angeles’ rapidly growing Asian community. In that role, she was a key figure in Bradley’s veto of a controversial redistricting plan that would have placed the city’s first Asian council member, Michael Woo, in a largely Latino district.

Insiders believe that the plan would have made Woo’s election to a second term on the council virtually impossible.

Influenced Mayor

“She was very important,” Woo said, crediting her and Jeff Matsui, another Bradley aide, for influencing the mayor’s action. “That was one example of her relationship with the mayor. One of her functions is to give the mayor an accurate reading on the community’s concerns . . . (and) she was able to convey to the mayor the intensity of opposition from the Asian community.”

If Bradley upsets George Deukmejian in the November gubernatorial election, she will be out of a job, Ung said. But she said she is pulling for him--and, in fact, is spending much of her own time planning a 1,000-mile fund-raising run scheduled for Oct 18.

Dubbed the “Bradley Run for California,” the relay-style event is expected to begin in San Diego and end--after 2,000 half-mile segments--in Sacramento. Runners must collect $500 in donations to participate.

Ung said she will do more than stand on the sidelines.

“I’m trying to get donations so I can run,” she said. “I really do believe in the man.”