Bernardi’s Staff Appointment Enrages Ministers’ Group

City Councilman Ernani Bernardi’s appointment of a new staff deputy has outraged members of a San Fernando Valley ministers’ group, who say the councilman promised to appoint a candidate recommended by the group in exchange for its support during last year’s council election.

“We were let down by the councilman,” said the Rev. James V. Lyles, pastor of the First United Methodist Church in Pacoima, and president of the Ministers’ Fellowship of the Greater San Fernando Valley. “He has not kept one commitment that he has made to us.”

Earlier this week Bernardi appointed Richard Packard, who heads the Valley chapter of the Black Americans Political Assn., as his deputy, ending a yearlong search for a black deputy that was prompted by the demands of the ministers’ group.

But rather than easing relations between the councilman and the group, the appointment has left feelings of bitterness and betrayal. Lyles said the ministers would discuss the possibility of issuing a censure or initiating a recall campaign against Bernardi during a meeting today.

Fred Taylor, a member of the ministers’ organization, said the councilman’s decision was “disrespectful and dishonest.”

“We were supposed to be part of the process,” Taylor said. Bernardi “completely ignored the whole process . . . we came away from this deal empty-handed.”

During the 1989 council election, the ministers’ group backed Bernardi after he appealed for its help, Taylor said. Several of the 40 ministers “opened their pulpits” to the councilman, allowing him to speak at their churches, in some cases to crowds of up to 600 people. Many actively campaigned on the councilman’s behalf.

Their support, they say, bolstered Bernardi’s faltering campaign against his leading opponent, Lyle Hall, who proved to be a strong challenger to the longtime incumbent. Bernardi eked out a narrow victory.

“When he was losing the election, we turned it around for him,” Lyles said. “We beat the bushes and delivered the votes and he won.”

In exchange for their support, Taylor said, Bernardi verbally agreed to appoint a black deputy recommended by the group.

“We wanted someone who would be able to interface with us,” Taylor said. “You have to have a special talent to interface with the church community so it takes a different kind of person.”

The group also wanted to ensure that the person would not “kowtow” to Bernardi, he said.

Earlier this month the ministers recommended Debra King, a community activist; Delores DeWitt, a paralegal; and Bishop Milford Harvey of the New Testament Church for the appointment to Bernardi’s staff.

But Bernardi chose Packard without consulting with the ministers’ group.

Bernardi denied that any such agreement was ever made or that names were ever submitted to him.

“All I promised is that we would carefully consider anybody they nominated, but we would make the final decision of who would work in my office as is the case with all my employees,” he said.

Out of a field of nine candidates Packard “has what we need at this time,” Bernardi said.

“We selected him because he was the best of the nine and because he had strong support” in the community, Bernardi said, rattling off a list of Packard’s supporters.

The ministers say their outrage is not directed at Packard, but at Bernardi. The councilman’s disregard of their wishes reflects, Lyles said, a blatant disregard for his black constituency.

“Bernardi has a plantation mentality,” Lyles said. “The time has long past when our masters are able to come to us and tell us who best represents us.”

“Richard Packard is a victim of this as much as we are,” Taylor said. Packard could not be reached for comment.

Taylor said Packard was recommended to Bernardi by a Latino member of his staff, and that Packard is therefore more the choice of the Latino community than the black leaders. Packard was, ironically, co-chairman of the campaign of Bernardi’s chief opponent in the last council election--Lyle Hall.