Hall Takes Big Money Lead Over Bernardi

Los Angeles City Council candidate Lyle Hall raised nearly twice as much money as incumbent Councilman Ernani Bernardi between March and May, campaign finance statements filed Thursday disclosed.

The frugal Bernardi, however, still had more money in the bank than Hall.

Hall, a city fire captain and former president of the firefighters union, received one-third of his $131,413 total from unions and from 129 individual firefighters, most of whom live outside the council district.

Bernardi raised $71,049 from a variety of sources, ranging from car dealers to developers to attorneys. More of Bernardi’s contributions--16%--came from sources within the 7th District, which stretches across the northeast San Fernando Valley. Only 7% of Hall’s money came from inside the district.

Bernardi, a 28-year council veteran, was forced into a June 6 runoff after he failed to gain more than half of the votes in the April primary. Before the primary, Bernardi raised slightly more money--$54,897 to Hall’s $41,505.

‘Beholden to Unions’

Bernardi could not be reached for comment Thursday night, but in the past has frequently criticized his opponent for being “beholden to the labor unions” because of Hall’s strong union support.

However, Hall said Thursday that he is “not beholden to anyone.”

Hall also said he attracts donations because “people that follow the political process have made their decision about who’s going to win.”

Since the primary, more than half of Hall’s $41,175 in union contributions came from individual firefighters and unions that represent them. The rest came from sources ranging from police to plumbers.

The United Auto Workers was the only union that backed Bernardi, giving him $500.

$42,481 in Debt

But expensive mailings from Hall to district residents and consulting fees paid to his campaign manager, Harvey Englander, caused Hall to spend more than he raised. At the end of the reporting period, May 20, he was $42,481 in debt, not counting a $15,000 personal loan that he took out at the end of March.

Bernardi, who brags that his frugality always leaves him a large surplus in his council office budget, spent only $58,226 of his campaign funds and took out no loans. That left him with $42,391, to Hall’s $10,618 in cash on hand. However, Hall held a fund-raising dinner Monday night.

A controversial issue in the campaign was reflected in the finance statements.

A proposal to locate the Nancy Reagan Center for drug rehabilitation in Lake View Terrace is opposed by neighborhood organizations. Bernardi, who has joined the opposition, reported receiving $750 from Phyllis Hines, an officer in the Lake View Terrace Improvement Assn.

Hall, who favors the center, received $500 from attorney Dale K. Neal of Latham & Watkins, the firm that is representing the center’s backers.

Neither candidate received much financial support from other politicians. Bernardi reported a $500 contribution from Councilman Marvin Braude and another $500 from Braude’s wife, Marjorie. Hall got $100 from state Sen. John Garamendi (D-Walnut Grove).

The two candidates made a joint appearance before a senior citizens group in Sherman Oaks Thursday, with the 77-year-old Bernardi trying to woo his contemporaries by complaining that Hall has suggested that the elderly should not hold office.

“You’re looking at a man who, according to Lyle Hall, is too old to represent you,” Bernardi said.

But the remark got only scattered applause, and members of Seniors for Action quickly returned the candidates forum to the social causes that are close to their hearts.

Both candidates got a generally favorable response from the sometimes militant group, which lobbies for better bus service, stricter rent control, improved Medicare benefits and crime prevention measures.

Hall, 49, regularly tells voters that it is time for a “fresh, aggressive and realistic point of view” on the council, and suggests that voters could begin by retiring Bernardi. But he refrained from such language Thursday.

Instead, the city fire captain emphasized his qualifications and his record of activity on behalf of the firefighters union and other groups.

In response to questions, he said he opposes the proposed use of the National Guard to help deal with youth gangs, saying it should be saved for “extraordinary emergencies.” He also advocated, as a crime-fighting measure, creation of street-lighting assessment districts, with the assessments to become liens on affected properties, to be paid only when the land is sold.

He told the group that the experience of New York and other cities, which have a higher proportion of police officers to residents than Los Angeles, shows that “you never have enough police to solve the crime problem.”

Instead, Hall said, governments should offer more social programs, including improved education, to “provide a break in the chain of despair” that he said is the root of urban crime.

Bernardi, long a critic of redevelopment and what he views as unnecessarily high salaries for city employees, especially administrators, once again attacked Hall as a pawn of “militant city employee unions that have been trying to get me out for a decade.”

He also defended his record of fighting crime in his district, saying a section of Blythe Street in Van Nuys, which until recently was a haven for drug sellers and other criminals, is “almost bearable now.”

Bernardi credited intensive police patrols, paid for with funds that he secured to pay officers for overtime work.

The two agreed that council members’ existing annual salary of $58,000 is adequate. Bernardi said that with “free trips and other perks, the $58,000 is comparable to an $80,000 to $90,000 annual salary.”