Lloyd Bailer; First Employee Commission Chairman

Lloyd H. Bailer, a nationally known professional arbitrator and economist who was the first chairman of the Los Angeles County Employee Relations Commission, died Tuesday.

He was 76 and died at home in Brentwood after suffering a series of strokes, said his son, Lloyd Jr.

Born in Chicago, he received his doctorate in economics from the University of Michigan and became a professor at Columbia, Howard, Rutgers and New York universities.

He formed a labor arbitration practice in the early 1940s and during World War II was appointed to the War Labor Board and the War Shipping Panel.

After the war, he went to New York and was appointed to the state Board of Higher Education and became director of industrial relations of the Urban League of greater New York.

Bailer served on federal advisory boards during the Eisenhower, Kennedy, Nixon and Johnson administrations.

In 1967, he moved to Los Angeles and helped write a county employee relations ordinance. In 1968, the Board of Supervisors made him one of the first three appointees to the Employee Relations Commission and named him chairman. He served at various times until 1985.

Besides his son, he is survived by his wife, Marvelyne, four daughters and nine grandchildren.

Services will be private.