21% of Meetings Missed : Foe Criticizes Bernardi Over Council Attendance

A challenger to Los Angeles City Councilman Ernani Bernardi on Monday attacked the 77-year-old lawmaker for missing 21% of council meetings during the last 12 months to tie for the worst attendance record on the council.

Bernardi missed 29 of 135 meetings or about 10 weeks worth between Feb. 1, 1988, and Jan. 31, 1989, largely because of illness, City Hall records show. Councilman Gilbert W. Lindsay, who suffered a mild stroke last fall, also missed 29 meetings. Councilman Nate Holden, who was absent for three meetings, had the best attendance record.

“It doesn’t matter whether he was playing golf or he was sick. He wasn’t there,” said Lyle Hall, a Los Angeles fire captain opposing Bernardi in the April 11 election for the northeast San Fernando Valley’s 7th District seat.

“The citizens of Los Angeles have every right to expect that they are getting full-time representation from their elected council members,” Hall said at a City Hall press conference.

Defends Record

“All I can say is I stand on my record over the years,” Bernardi responded. He said that during his 28 years of service, his attendance has been better than that of most of his younger colleagues.

Bernardi said he missed a number of meetings last year to care for his ailing wife. After his wife’s health improved, Bernardi had a perfect attendance record for October, November and December. Even when he was absent, he said, he worked at home.

Bernardi missed six meetings in a row in early January after he cut his head in a fall.

The City Council usually meets three times a week.

In other campaign developments:

The field of challengers to Bernardi narrowed to seven when Frederick Taylor failed to qualify for the ballot, according to city elections officials. Many of Taylor’s 500 required signatures were of people who were not registered to vote or who do not live in the district.

Bernardi was endorsed by Anne Finn, whose husband, the late Councilman Howard Finn, represented much of the area in Bernardi’s district. After Howard Finn’s death in 1986, the council carved up Finn’s district to settle a federal lawsuit seeking to create a new Latino district near downtown Los Angeles. Bernardi’s district was moved north to pick up areas previously represented by Finn, including Pacoima and Sylmar.

Hall, a former president of the Los Angeles Firefighters Union and a reserve police officer in Burbank for 11 years, was endorsed by the 7,600-member Los Angeles Police Protective League.

In the West Valley’s 3rd District race, Todd Landis, a co-owner of the Country Club in Reseda, failed to qualify for the ballot, leaving Councilwoman Joy Picus with five opponents.