Bernardi Solicits Endorsements From Former Challengers

Los Angeles City Councilman Ernani Bernardi continued shopping for endorsements Saturday, but the two former candidates he courted said they had not decided whether to back the 77-year-old incumbent against challenger Lyle Hall in the June 6 runoff election.

Still, Bernardi said he felt “very good” about his talks Saturday with Irene Tovar and Jules S. Bagneris III, who finished fourth and fifth last week in the 7th District council race, but together got 16.5% of the vote.

“The meetings went very well,” said Bernardi, adding that he hopes to hear from Tovar and Bagneris this week.

Short of Majority

Bernardi got 41.5% of the vote in Tuesday’s election, easily leading a field of eight candidates who competed for the northeast San Fernando Valley seat. But Bernardi’s showing fell well short of the majority needed to avoid a runoff.

In June, he will face second-place finisher Hall, 49, a former firefighters union president who amassed 25.7% of the vote.

Both Bernardi and Hall met Friday with third-place finisher Al Dib, an Arleta community activist who received 11.8% of the vote and is expected to announce his choice early this week.

Tovar, a former president of the State Personnel Board and former chairwoman of the state Democratic Party’s Hispanic Caucus, said Saturday that she and Bernardi “did meet, but I haven’t yet made a decision.”

‘Vision of District’

At their meeting, which Tovar said lasted a little less than an hour, she discussed her “vision of the district and the problems that it has,” including housing and transportation.

Bagneris, a stockbroker and minister with the African Methodist Episcopal Church, said he met with Bernardi more than two hours, stressing his opposition to expansion of the city’s Lopez Canyon Landfill and the proposed Nancy Reagan Center for drug rehabilitation in Lake View Terrace. He also reiterated his wish to see the lake at Hansen Dam restored.

While saying he was pleased that Bernardi “holds the same positions as we do,” Bagneris said he had not decided which candidate to endorse.