An Apparent Stroke Puts Lindsay, 89, in Hospital : Health: Councilman is unable to speak and is paralyzed on his right side. He has no plans to resign, aide says.

Los Angeles City Councilman Gilbert W. Lindsay apparently suffered a stroke over the weekend and on Tuesday remained in the intensive care unit at Daniel Freeman Hospital in Inglewood, his office said.

The 89-year-old councilman, who has been in failing health in recent years, has been paralyzed on the right side since he was stricken in his home Sunday night, according to his aide, Bob Gay.

Gay said Lindsay is unable to speak and has been drifting in and out of consciousness. Doctors planned to perform tests to determine the precise cause of Lindsay’s trouble, Gay said.

A hospital spokeswoman said Lindsay was stabilized and in good condition Tuesday, but referred all other questions about him to Gay.

Although Lindsay cannot speak, he indicated that he recognized Gay by squeezing Gay’s hand in response to a question, Gay said Tuesday. The aide added that Lindsay has no intention of resigning before his current term ends in 1993.

“Be assured he’s still the councilman,” Gay said. “He’s still in charge. . . . He has given every indication every time I’ve talked to him that he wants to be the councilman in the 9th District. He has no desire to be anywhere else.”

Lindsay’s staff has encouraged him to remain in office, Gay said, because “we believe this helps him live a lot longer.”

Gay said a team of staff members is running the office, but declined to say who, if anyone, has ultimate authority.

Lindsay, the oldest of the council’s 15 members, suffered a stroke in 1988 that affected his right hand, but he was able to return to work at City Hall after about a month of recuperation.

In an interview last March, Lindsay said he had no plans to step down before the election and had not decided whether he will run for another term.

“I never felt better in my life,” he said. “I can run a 100-yard dash and challenge anybody to beat me. . . . I can do anything I want.”

However, council members and community activists have said they have noted a decline in Lindsay’s health and attention span since the 1988 stroke, and some suggested last spring that he resign.

Lindsay’s district includes some of the most expensive real estate in the city as well as some of the city’s poorest areas. He is credited with helping to engineer the transformation of downtown into an area of gleaming skyscrapers, but some critics complain that he has largely ignored the needs of his poorer constituents in rundown South-Central neighborhoods.

With Lindsay absent, the district has no vote in matters that come before the city council.

City Council President John Ferraro said Tuesday that Lindsay will probably remain in office until he decides to step down. According to the city Charter, a council member can be removed from office only if adjudged insane, convicted of a felony or recalled by voters.

Ferraro said he would not call for Lindsay to step down.

“I’ll support him in anything he decides to do,” Ferraro said. “Gil is a longtime friend of mine. I went to Harry Truman’s inauguration with Gil on a chartered airplane. I just love the guy.”

Two months ago, Lindsay was hospitalized after he collapsed in the City Hall garage while awaiting the arrival of South African civil rights leader Nelson Mandela. After a two-week hospital stay, he returned to work and attended several City Council meetings.

On Friday, Lindsay was honored by the council for his 50 years of service to the city, which he began as a janitor. He was alert and joking with council members and reporters.

Lindsay was stricken about 9 p.m. Sunday while he was resting at home, Gay said. “Apparently he fell over,” he added. A friend pressed a recently installed medical emergency button to summon paramedics, Gay said.

Initially, the councilman had an irregular heartbeat, but that condition has stabilized, Gay said. Doctors planned to perform an electroencephalogram, a CAT scan and an electrocardiogram to determine his condition, Gay said.

Gay said Lindsay is at times alert, “but he’s physically tired and comes in and out of it. . . . Obviously, he’s a lot older than he was in 1988 and so the complications could be a little different. It’s difficult to tell.”

Born in Mississippi in 1900, Lindsay left home when he was a teen-ager and served in a segregated unit during World War I.

Later, Lindsay went to work as a janitor for the Department of Water and Power. Eventually, he was hired as a deputy to Los Angeles County Supervisor Kenneth Hahn and in 1963 became the city’s first black councilman when he was appointed to fill the unexpired term of Ed Roybal, who had been elected to Congress.

Lindsay has won reelection handily since then and has had the backing of the city’s major black leaders.