Council Members File Election Fund Reports

Los Angeles City Councilman Hal Bernson paid out more than $82,000 of his political funds during the past six months, making him the biggest campaign spender of the council’s eight San Fernando Valley representatives.

Council President John Ferraro is the best-prepared financially of the eight Valley-based council members to seek reelection, according to campaign finance disclosure reports filed this week covering the last half of 1989.

Ferraro, who represents Sun Valley and Toluca Lake, stockpiled $23,500 in political funds during the past six months. The total now available to finance a 1991 reelection bid by Ferraro is $155,063, the biggest such amount of the Valley’s council incumbents.

The most active political fund-raiser of the eight was Councilman Michael Woo, whose district includes parts of Studio City and Sherman Oaks. Woo raised $60,900 but returned $20,100 that was raised before he filed the forms required by the city’s campaign finance law. By year’s end, Woo’s political coffers held less than $17,000, of which only $8,721 is earmarked for the lawmaker’s 1993 reelection bid.

Bernson--who represents Chatsworth, Northridge and Granada Hills--could not be reached for comment on the $82,000 spent by three of his campaign committees.

Nearly $5,000 of that sum was paid for lunches and dinners at some of the Valley’s and West Side’s finest restaurants for Bernson and his political aides and supporters. Bernson ended 1989 with a total of $199,776 in all three committees but is limited by city campaign finance laws to using only $46,282 of this amount for a reelection campaign in 1991.

Three council members whose districts are exclusively in the Valley--Joy Picus, Joel Wachs and Ernani Bernardi--raised and spent little or no money during the last half of 1989. Picus ended the period with $23,679 in her political coffers. Wachs had $128,000 in his, and Bernardi had $20,430.

Councilmen Zev Yaroslavsky and Marvin Braude represent parts of the Valley. Yaroslavsky, whose district includes portions of Sherman Oaks, ended 1989 with a cash balance of $124,000. Braude, who represents Woodland Hills and Encino, had a $45,000 cash balance.

Neither Picus, Wachs, Bernardi, Yaroslavsky nor Braude have set aside any funds to run for reelection. The current terms of all five expire in 1993.