Signature Effort Fails in Bernson Recall Bid

A Northridge businessman’s attempt to recall Los Angeles City Councilman Hal Bernson failed Monday, and Bernson said he will ask a council committee to study possible changes in the city’s recall process to prevent what he called “political harassment.”

Backers of the recall effort, led by Walter N. Prince, owner of a janitorial service, were unable to collect the signatures of 17,622 registered voters from Bernson’s northwest San Fernando Valley district. Petitions with the required number of signatures had to be submitted to the city clerk’s office by 5 p.m. Monday in order to force a recall election.

Prince did not submit any petitions to the clerk’s office Monday, saying he had gathered only about 13,000 valid signatures.

“We’re shy of the mark,” he said.

Prince said his group, Citizens United to Recall Bernson, gathered 22,000 signatures, but about 9,000 of those were from people who lived outside Bernson’s district or who were not registered to vote.

Prince has accused Bernson of siding with large landowners and developers on zoning issues such as the proposed 1,300-acre Porter Ranch residential and commercial development. He also criticized Bernson’s plan to use a redevelopment agency to upgrade a run-down area along Parthenia Street in which Prince owns property.

Bernson last week put the redevelopment plan on hold to give property owners an opportunity to upgrade the Parthenia Street area themselves. He said the recall effort stemmed from a narrow group of property owners, including Prince, who are resisting improvement of the area.

On Oct. 28, Prince published a second notice of intention to recall Bernson, in effect starting a new recall effort in which he has until March to obtain the necessary number of signatures. Prince will not be allowed to include the signatures his group gathered for the failed recall effort.

Bernson called the second attempt to recall him “political harassment” and said he will ask the council’s Rules and Elections Committee to study whether provisions in the City Charter should be changed to prevent repeated recall efforts.

“Certainly, there should not be the ability for the same people with the same complaint to issue new petitions upon the failure of a previous attempt,” Bernson said. “This basically amounts to extending the political process during the entire term of the officeholder.”

The charter currently bars a second recall attempt from starting within six months of a special recall election in which the council member prevails. But it permits repeated recall attempts after previous ones fail to force an election.

Bernson also said the charter should require backers of failed recall drives to turn in their signatures to the city clerk. He said he doubted Prince collected as many as he claimed.

“I’m not going to make a big deal about it,” Bernson said, but “it’s important that these changes be made.”

Prince also has complained about the recall process. The requirement that recall proponents collect more than 17,000 signatures--15% of the district’s registered voters--is onerous, he said.

In 1987, Bernson won reelection with nearly 12,000 votes.