Bradley Nominates Lomax for DWP Post; Move Draws Criticism

Melanie E. Lomax, who resigned from the Los Angeles Police Commission amid a swirl of controversy one year ago, was quietly nominated late Tuesday to the powerful Department of Water and Power Commission.

In submitting Lomax’s name to the City Council for confirmation, Mayor Tom Bradley chose not to reappoint prominent environmentalist Mary Nichols, whose term expired on June 30.

Bill Chandler, a spokesman for Bradley, said the mayor had high praise for Nichols’ work on the DWP. He said Bradley “sought someone who would advance Mary’s environmental concerns, while at the same provide ethnic diversity to the board.” Lomax, an attorney and civil rights activist, would be the only African-American on the panel, which now is composed of four whites and one Latino.

“I told the mayor I was interested in returning to serve the city of Los Angeles,” Lomax said in a telephone interview from New York City, where she is attending the Democratic National Convention.

But her nomination already is drawing opposition from City Council members concerned about her environmental credentials and her eight-month tenure as a police commissioner, when she was locked in a bitter clash with then-Police Chief Daryl F. Gates.

Complicating matters was Nichols’ refusal to step down quietly.

Nichols said she was surprised to receive a call from Deputy Mayor Mark Fabiani last week informing her that Lomax was to be nominated to the DWP post. Nichols said she declined an appointment to another city commission and refused to resign from the DWP board, where she continues to serve until her successor is confirmed by the council.

“I had no reason to think I would not be reappointed . . . and I made it known that I would like to be,” Nichols said Tuesday.

Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores, chair of the council committee that oversees the DWP, predicted that Lomax would face a tough time winning council confirmation.

“I wouldn’t vote for her,” Flores said.

Lomax left the Police Commission after she was accused of leaking confidential documents to a civil rights group seeking Gates’ ouster following the beating of Rodney G. King. Earlier, Lomax and other commissioners had come under fire from the City Council, which overturned the commission’s attempt to place Gates on furlough.

Eventually, she and other commissioners were urged to step down “in the interests of harmony and healing” by the Christopher Commission, which investigated the LAPD after the beating.

Lomax--who was cleared by the State Bar of wrongdoing in providing documents to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference--said Tuesday: “There is no good interest to be served by resurrecting controversies of the last year.”

Flores disagreed. “I certainly remember some of what went on,” she said. “I’m sure other council members will. . . . I don’t know that enough time has passed to make that stuff go away.”

Other council members questioned Lomax’s qualifications as an environmentalist.

Councilwoman Ruth Galanter, who serves with Flores on the Commerce, Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said Lomax “is not an environmentalist. . . . Whoever is appointed should be a strong environmentalist. . . . There certainly are plenty of those around.”

Galanter said that she has expressed her concerns to Fabiani. “Environmentalists fought for 20 years for this seat, and we’re not going to give it up quietly.”

Lomax countered that she has a great interest in the environment and pointed out that she is a “lifelong member of the Sierra Club and loves to hike. . . . I consider myself to be friendly to these issues.”

Tom Soto, president of the Coalition for Clean Air, said that he is unfamiliar with Lomax and could not comment on her qualifications, “but I would be concerned that whoever has that seat has a history of environmental activism.”

Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, who had called for Lomax’s resignation when she was on the Police Commission, said he would oppose Nichols’ removal. “I don’t intend to vote in a way that would have (Nichols) exit the DWP,” said Yaroslavsky, citing her strong environmental credentials . “She’s needed now more than ever.”

Nichols, director of the Los Angeles office of the Natural Resources Defense Council, has formed an environmentalist majority on the five-member DWP board, along with Dorothy Green, a founder of Heal the Bay, and Mike Gage, former Bradley chief of staff.

While claiming her own environmentalist credentials, Lomax added that it is also important to add a black member to the DWP commission--which oversees a department that, with a $3-billion-plus annual budget, provides water and electric services to 3.5 million city residents.

Flores replied that Bradley would do better to select a candidate from among the “many blacks who don’t come with the baggage that this appointee might have.”

Despite such sentiments, Lomax, who had served for four months on the Airport Commission before being appointed by Bradley to the Police Commission, said: “I expect to be confirmed. . . . I’m interested, I’m qualified and I think I can make a contribution to the DWP.”