Picus Rejects Non-Valley Appointee : Commissions: Five of the most powerful city panels have no members who live north of Mulholland Drive.

Reviving an old San Fernando Valley lament but armed with new information, Councilwoman Joy Picus complained Tuesday that Mayor Tom Bradley has failed to name enough Valley residents to the city’s 40 citizen commissions.

Picus renewed the complaint as she cast the sole vote against the appointment of Anthony de los Reyes to the Police Commission.

“I intend not to approve” future Bradley appointees unless “they reflect the Valley,” Picus said during debate over De los Reyes, a Bel-Air resident who is an attorney.

Although one-third of the city’s population is north of Mulholland Drive, only 44 of 240 city commissioners reside there, according to city records Picus provided. Valley residents make up 18.3% of the city’s commissioners. That represents no increase over the percentage reported in a Times survey of April, 1988.

Five of the most powerful commissions have no Valley residents, city records show. Those five-member panels are the Board of Public Works and the police, fire, recreation and park, and water and power commissions.

Picus’ complaints were echoed by Councilman Ernani Bernardi, a Valley lawmaker who said commissions are dominated by “elitists with pretty good political connections.” Still, Bernardi voted to confirm De los Reyes, as did Valley Councilman Hal Bernson, who sponsored a council motion approved three years ago urging the mayor to strive for “equitable distribution” of appointments from “throughout the city.”

Bradley press secretary Bill Chandler responded to Picus by charging that she had not lived up to her own ideals. On Picus’ recommendation, Bradley appointed Claire Bronowski of Venice to the city’s Civil Service Commission, Chandler said.

When Bradley asked Picus to suggest an appointee to the commission a year ago, Chandler said, “she recommended Claire Bronowski, who’s from the Westside. It’s odd for the councilwoman to now be saying she wants Valley appointees.”

Bradley’s main criterion in making appointments is to select people with “time and talent” to serve in posts that pay only stipends, Chandler said. “And he relies on people like Councilwoman Picus to suggest names. It takes a cooperative effort on everyone’s part.”

But Picus said she has repeatedly been turned down on names of Valley residents she submitted for appointment. “I don’t get to first base with the mayor’s office,” she said. Only four of the city’s commissioners live in Picus’ West Valley district.

Picus said her recommendation of Bronowski was an exception to her general practice of recommending Valley residents. She said she believed that gender diversity on the Civil Service Commission, which deals with job discrimination complaints, was more important than geographic diversity.

Bronowski was removed from the commission by Bradley two months ago, eliciting charges by Picus and other lawmakers that the mayor was trying to stack that commission with members who would be unfavorable to Police Chief Daryl F. Gates.

Picus refused to specify what level of Valley representation on the city’s commissions would satisfy her. “At the very least,” she said, she would not support appointing non-Valley residents to commissions that have no Valley representation.

Of the 44 Valley residents on the commissions, 22 are from the four districts wholly within the Valley and located--with a small exception--north of the Ventura Freeway. Most others reside in affluent areas of Sherman Oaks and Encino.