Bradley Appoints 18 to PIC Board

Following through on his pledge to revamp the troubled Private Industry Council, Mayor Tom Bradley on Friday appointed 18 new members to the job training agency’s board of directors.

Although Bradley said in January that he wanted to recruit chief executive officers of Los Angeles corporations, only four of the new directors are presidents of small firms. The mayor also sidestepped any potential political problems by reappointing all three labor representatives and his close friend, John Mack, president of the Los Angeles Urban League.

At least one outgoing board member, Robert Condon, criticized the handing of the dismissals by Bradley and said he was “delighted” that he was replaced.

“I just feel, after this experience with the politics and the bureaucracy and what I consider to be some hypocrisy and duplicity within the city Administration, that I personally have no desire to continue,” said Condon, a consultant with TransAmerica Occidental Life.

Last fall, The Times reported a series of scandals involving the appropriations of federal grant money managed by PIC President Dominick J. Ramos. Bradley later announced he was going to make some “very dramatic changes” in the council, which together with the city funnels $42 million a year in job-training funds.

At its Thursday meeting, the PIC executive committee voted 4 to 1 to resubmit a 4% retroactive pay increase for Ramos to the City Council. The proposal drew criticism because Ramos had resigned under pressure after the allegations of mismanagement.

Outgoing board member Condon said he received a congratulatory note signed by Bradley this week, but could not tell from the letter if or when he had been replaced.

“The newly appointed members of the Private Industry Council are indeed fortunate to join an organization with such a fine legacy of success,” Bradley wrote in the letter.

“Maybe we should have told them (they were being replaced),” said Deputy Mayor Grace Davis. “It’s hard to say those things. That’s why we avoided that.”

At least three board members were not sent letters informing them that they were being replaced. And the names of four new board members who will not be appointed until July 1 should not have been included on a press release issued by the mayor’s office late Friday, Davis said.

Bradley replaced PIC Chairman Robert J. Clark with Thomas V. McKernan Jr., vice president of the Automobile Club of Southern California. The four new chief executive officers are Stephen Baileys, president of Safeguard Health Enterprises; Dennis Coe, president of Eisamen, Johns & Laws Inc.; Dennis Poulsen, president of Rose Hills Memorial Park, and Patty DeDominic, president of PDQ Personnel Services Inc.

Other new members are Pat Engfer, manager of the Hyatt Regency; Ted M. Freedman, executive vice president of Wyle Laboratories; David J. Blanco, manager of Standard Brands Paint Co.; Alan R. Ewalt, senior vice president of National Medical Enterprises; C. R. Vennel, vice president of Rockwell International; Harold J. Childs, director of Merchants/Manufacturers Assn.; Bruce Lee, regional director of the United Auto Workers Union; David Lopez-Lee, a Los Angeles Community College District board member; Mary Cryor, regional director of Kaiser Permanente Medical Center of Pasadena; Ed Tanaka, director of the county Department of Social Services; Father R. David Cousineau, executive vice president of Catholic Charities; Rita Walters, a Los Angeles Unified School District board member, and W. Earl Haberlin, vice president of Watson Land Co.