Insiders Asked to Help Select Planning Chief : City Hall: Bradley’s decision to involve two of his longtime advisers, who have lobbied for controversial real estate projects, angers homeowners.

In a move that has drawn harsh criticism from homeowners, Mayor Tom Bradley has turned to two prominent City Hall insiders--who have lobbied for several of the city’s most controversial real estate projects--to help him pick the next planning chief.

The mayor’s office confirmed Wednesday that real estate lawyer Dan Garcia and land planning consultant Norman Emerson were asked to participate in recent interviews with the five finalists. According to Jane Blumenfeld, deputy mayor for planning, Garcia and Emerson were the only people not employed by city government invited by the mayor’s office to talk to the candidates during the final phase of selection.

“I wanted them to be involved because they are experts on planning issues and because the mayor knows and trusts them,” said Blumenfeld, who added that she consulted with Bradley before contacting Garcia and Emerson.

Garcia and Emerson have long records of government service, as members of city commissions on police, planning and transportation matters.

Nevertheless, the selection of a planning director has become such a sensitive issue that reports of the role played by Garcia and Emerson have enraged some homeowner activists.

“There is no question that we view this as a very serious breach of the public trust and we question its legality,” said Barbara Fine, vice president of the Federation of Hillside and Canyon Associations, which is made up of Westside and San Fernando Valley groups. “With this action, the mayor’s office has declared its extreme bias.”

Considered one of the most important positions in City Hall, the new planning director will inherit a department that has become a political football kicked between council members jealous of their turf and policy-makers grappling with citywide problems. The new director, who could be named within the week, will be expected to play a critical role in devising solutions to many of these problems--affordable housing, job and middle-class flight, traffic congestion and ethnic tensions.

Last fall, two representatives of homeowner groups served on screening panels, appointed by the city, to rate the 39 applicants for the planning post. Seven finalists were chosen but the number dwindled to five after two candidates dropped out.

The finalists for the job are Melanie Fallon, the city’s acting planning director; Con Howe, a former executive director of the New York City Planning Commission; Norman Krumholz, a professor of urban planning at Cleveland State University who served as planning director in Cleveland from 1969 to 1979; Bruce McClendon, director of planning in Ft. Worth, Tex.; and Ronald Short, head of the Phoenix Planning Department.

Fine and other homeowner representatives said bringing in Garcia and Emerson at the last minute skewed what had been a fair process.

“It creates an unfortunate perception that that the mayor’s office has a biased point of view,” said architect Bill Christopher, coordinator of PLAN LA, a citywide confederation of homeowner groups. “We’d like to see the interests of the community at large represented too.”

During the past two years, Garcia and Emerson together received nearly $250,000 lobbying for developers with projects in Porter Ranch, Warner Center, Central City West and elsewhere. Many of these projects are among the city’s largest commercial developments and all have been political battlegrounds in the city’s wars over growth.

Together, the two also have contributed more than $42,000 to Bradley political campaigns since 1985.

Some took the view that Bradley was within his rights to seek the advice of Garcia and Emerson, two longtime confidants. Appointed by Bradley, Garcia was president of the Planning Commission for 10 years until 1988. Also appointed by the mayor, Emerson is a member of the board of the Community Redevelopment Agency. He was a Bradley appointee to the Southern California Rapid Transit District board and served as the mayor’s director of research and policy from 1973 to 1978.

City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, who often is at odds with the mayor over development issues, said he was neither surprised nor upset at the news of Emerson’s and Garcia’s involvement in the interview process.

“It may raise an eyebrow, but Garcia and Emerson both have been longtime advisers to the mayor on land-use issues,” Yaroslavsky said. “They are part of the mayor’s kitchen cabinet, and I would be surprised if they weren’t consulted.”

Yaroslavsky is one of several members of the council who separately interviewed the finalists during the past week.

Jerry Daniel, who was one of the homeowner representatives on the screening committees, did not object to the presence of Garcia and Emerson. “It’s the mayor’s game, and he has to feel comfortable in the people he chooses to advise him,” Daniel said.

Blumenfeld said the discussions involving Garcia and Emerson took place after the mayor had interviewed each finalist. Blumenfeld said she arranged a series of lunches and dinner at which she, Garcia and, on two occasions, Emerson met with each finalist.

“We barely mentioned development,” she said. “We were more interested if they could make the transition to L.A. and its particular situation in the Planning Department.”

Garcia characterized the meetings as “just an effort to get more information.”

He reacted with scorn to the notion that he would be biased. “I think such allegations are childish,” said Garcia, who last year became vice president for real estate planning and public affairs for Warner Bros., a division of Time-Warner Inc.

Emerson, who heads his own land use and transportation consulting company, insisted that his presence at meals with two of the candidates does not mean he was part of the selection process.

“I was there in my capacity as a member of the city family,” Emerson said, referring to his membership on the board of the Community Redevelopment Agency. “I talked about evolving policies and programs regarding air quality, transportation and land use.”

Lobbying Fees

Here is a list of the top five clients represented by real estate consultant Norman Emerson and attorney Dan Garcia. The dollar amounts are the money paid to Emerson and Garcia from Jan. 1, 1988, through Sept. 30, 1991 , from the listed clients only: NORMAN EMERSON

* Voit Co.: $38,500

* Warner Center Assn.: $32,500

* Kaiser Permanente: $22,000

* Center City West Assn.: $25,500

* Deloitte Haskins & Sells: $8,500

DAN GARCIA

* Hillman Properties West Inc.: $35,593

* Cathay City Development Inc./Courdert Bros.: $14,471

* Porter Ranch Development Co.: $7,688

* Catellus Development Co.: $5,229

* Ratkovich Co.: $3,173

NOTE: Emerson and Garcia contributed at total of $42,040 to Mayor Tom Bradley from September, 1983 through December, 1990.

Compiled by Times researcher Cecilia Rasmussen