Tuesday’s Election Choices

What may well be a mere handful of voters will decide several important runoff elections on Tuesday in Los Angeles. In the primary, 57 votes separated two candidates in a school board race, so, as usual, every vote counts.

There are contests for the Northeast San Fernando Valley City Council seat, the West Valley and Westside spots on the Los Angeles Board of Education and two district-wide seats on the Los Angeles Community College Board of Trustees.

CITY COUNCIL--Los Angeles City Councilman Ernani Bernardi, 77, is in his own words a man who is tight with a tax dollar. Frugal and pragmatic during 28 years in office, he has fought against excessive salaries and spiraling pensions. On the housing front, his ordinance required new developments with five or more units to reserve 15% of those units for poor and moderate-income people. While other council members hesitated, he made room for several trailers for homeless families in his district. Although he faces an attractive challenger, Lyle Hall, a veteran firefighter and union leader who knows his way around City Hall, we endorse Bernardi to represent District 7, the Northeast San Fernando Valley.

BOARD OF EDUCATION-We endorse incumbents Julie Korenstein and Alan Gershman for reelection. Korenstein finished 57 votes ahead of Gerald E. Horowitz, a junior high school principal, in a six-person race in April. A former substitute teacher in the district, she has been a strong supporter of school-based health clinics and deserves reelection.

On the Westside, Gershman, a former teacher, faces an aggressive challenge by Mark Slavkin, an aide to Los Angeles County Supervisor Ed Edelman, who has the strong support of United Teachers-Los Angeles. Gershman was targeted early for defeat by the union despite two terms of capable, steady service on the board. Among other accomplishments, he chaired the committee that drew up the tougher high school graduation requirements. Gershman and Slavkin would both provide able representation for the Westside, but we endorse Gershman to try to prevent the teachers’ union from dominating the board.

COMMUNITY COLLEGE TRUSTEES--Both of the candidates we endorse have longstanding connections with the community college district. For Office No. 2, we have endorsed Rose Ochi, a mayoral assistant who graduated from Los Angeles City College. Ochi served on the screening committee that helped select the district’s new chancellor. For Office No. 6, we endorse Althea R. Baker, head of Mission College’s counseling department and the American Federation of Teacher local’s chief negotiator in last year’s contract bargaining. She has worked well with the trustees in what could have been a difficult situation.

Baker and Ochi deserve support in what are low-profile races for the highly important jobs of helping the colleges implement reforms recently enacted by the California Legislature.