PANORAMA CITY : Berman Making Personal Apologies for Overdrafts

Eadie Gieb was surprised to pick up her phone Monday evening and find Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Panorama City) on the other end of the line.

The Sylmar resident had called Berman’s district office earlier that day to express her dismay over his 67 check overdrafts at the scandal-plagued House bank. “He told me he wanted to extend a personal apology for having been involved in that, and that he recognizes now that it was wrong,” said Gieb, a lifelong Republican. “It was pretty commendable that he would take the time.”

Berman said Thursday that he has telephoned most of the dozen or so people who left their names and numbers or wrote him after the House Ethics Committee made his bank record public.

“It creates an impression which, in some cases, has been distorted beyond the error I committed,” Berman said. “It was a question about my personal conduct, and I thought people were entitled to have a direct answer.”