Runoff Rival Challenges Bernardi to Sign Pledge

Firing the first volley in their runoff campaign, Los Angeles City Council candidate Lyle Hall on Thursday challenged Councilman Ernani Bernardi to sign a gentlemen’s agreement pledging to run a campaign based on issues, “not smear tactics or half-truths.”

“I believe that now, during the early stages of the campaign, it is time to demand fair campaign practices from my opponent,” said Hall, a Los Angeles city fire captain who signed the agreement.

Bernardi, the council dean with 28 years of service, outpolled his seven challengers in Tuesday’s 7th District primary with 42% of the vote. But he fell short of the 50% plus one vote required to avoid a June 6 runoff against Hall, who finished second with 26%.

The “truth in political advertising” agreement calls for each candidate to give his opponent a copy of campaign literature 24 hours before distribution. It asks candidates not to disseminate any material “which misrepresents, distorts or otherwise falsifies the facts regarding any candidate” or implies endorsements that the candidate does not have.

No Penalty

There is no penalty for violating the agreement. But “it is a bad news story if you violate it,” said Harvey Englander, Hall’s political consultant.

Bernardi said Thursday that he will not comment on Hall’s proposal until he has time to review it.

On Wednesday the veteran councilman blamed his showing in the primary in part on “a very slick, hard-hitting campaign against me which involved a torrent of last-minute mailings full of distortions.” He was referring to a flurry of mailers sent by Hall in the final days of the campaign attacking the 77-year-old Bernardi’s absences from council meetings.

Bernardi accused Hall of misrepresenting the councilman’s attendance record by concentrating on the period from Feb. 1, 1988, to Jan. 31, 1989, when he missed 29 of 135 council meetings, many to take care of his ailing wife, instead of looking at his good attendance over the years and since Jan. 31.

Candidate Irene Tovar, who finished fourth, criticized a pre-election Hall mailer sent to Latinos. It pictured Hall with Cesar Chavez, leader of United Farm Workers. Chavez did not endorse any candidate in the primary.

Mailers Defended

Englander denied that any of the Hall mailers would have violated the agreement had it been in effect for the primary. He added that he would have sent out the same mailers had the agreement been in effect.

He contended that a pre-election Bernardi mailer containing a quote from Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl Gates praising Bernardi was deceptive because Gates does not endorse candidates. Englander said the Hall mailer containing Chavez’s picture was not deceptive because it did not contain any quotes from the farm workers’ leader.

Meanwhile, both candidates have been courting the other candidates in an effort to win their endorsements. Bernardi has agreed to debate Hall, although no dates have been set.

The district includes Arleta, Pacoima and Sylmar and parts of Lake View Terrace, Mission Hills, North Hollywood, Panorama City, Sepulveda, Sun Valley and Van Nuys.