Latino, Two Blacks Among Five Bradley Managerial Appointees

Mayor Tom Bradley hired the highest-ranked black official in San Diego County and a prominent Los Angeles arts figure for top city jobs Wednesday, filling vacancies left when two of his most controversial appointees departed City Hall in a hurry.

In also elevating veteran Los Angeles city officials to three other top jobs, Bradley rejected pleas from Latino leaders for at least two appointments and a bigger share of the plum jobs in city government. Of the five new general managers named Thursday, two are black and one is Latino.

The vacancies, which gave Bradley the chance to strengthen his hand in advance of next spring’s mayoral election, came about in part by the resignation under pressure of Sylvia Cunliffe, former head of the Department of General Services, and the firing of Fred Croton from his post as chief of the Cultural Affairs Department. The other positions became open due to retirement and resignations.

Bradley, whose selections must be confirmed by the City Council, proposed that Cunliffe be replaced by Randall Bacon, the number-three administrator for San Diego County. In 1985 Bacon was a finalist for the post of Los Angeles County chief administrative officer, one of the highest-profile professional jobs in local government in the nation, but was passed over by the Board of Supervisors.

In San Diego Bacon had also served as head of the county Department of Social Services. In Los Angeles his $109,000-a-year job would be to oversee the huge department that operates City Hall and acts as business agent for the city bureaucracy.

The arts figure named to head the Cultural Affairs Department is Adolfo V. Nodal, vice president of the MacArthur Park Foundation, a group working to upgrade the neighborhood around the park. Of Cuban ancestry, Nodal now splits his time between Los Angeles and another job as executive director of the Contemporary Arts Center in New Orleans.

The department, which operates the municipal art galleries, is one of the smallest in City Hall. Nonetheless, many in the local arts community had encouraged Bradley to name someone with stature locally, and Nodal’s ties include the downtown Otis Art Institute and the MacArthur Park Public Arts Council. His pay, still to be decided, will be between $56,606 and $84,898 a year.

Bradley also named Stephen Edwin Rowe, interim chief of the Department of Transportation, to become the permanent general manager; Parker C. Anderson, an 18-year City Hall veteran, to become general manager of the Community Development Department, and M. Faye Washington, acting chief of the Department of Aging, to take over as general manager of that department.

Rowe, expected to make about $98,000 a year, had been considered the leading candidate to run the Department of Transportation, where he was the assistant chief for eight years. A traffic engineer by training, Rowe has overseen the city’s installation of computerized traffic signals.

The other appointments were less predictable, however, and Nodal and Anderson were both given the top jobs over chief deputies who have run things while the general manager chair was empty.

Anderson, in particular, could prove to be a rallying point for minority leaders.

The Community Development Department is City Hall’s chief dispenser of social service money, much of which goes to heavily minority neighborhoods. The list of finalists included two blacks, one of them the interim general manager, Harreld Adams. Anderson, who is white, has been well down on the department’s ranking chart as the director of industrial and commercial development and will receive a substantial raise to about $80,000 a year.

Last month Latino leaders complained that their numbers in top City Hall jobs were far below expectations and said that they would be looking at Bradley’s rare chance to name five new top officials for some correction.

But, as is his custom, Bradley announced his selection of the new general managers in writing, without elaborating on his reasons. Under city rules, Bradley was free to choose from a list of six or seven finalists who survived an examination and interviews by a panel of citizens.

The other black appointee is Washington, who was an adviser to the City Council in the office of the chief legislative analyst for four years until being named interim head of the Department of Aging in January. She is expected to make $84,898 a year.