Mayor Still Seeks Black in DWP Job : Appointment: After council rejection of Melanie Lomax as commissioner, Bradley asks advisers for a list of other candidates.

Mayor Tom Bradley on Wednesday directed his chief advisers to compile a list of African-American candidates to replace controversial attorney Melanie E. Lomax as his appointee to the Department of Water and Power Commission.

The mayor was expected to select a new appointment from the list of at least 12 civil rights leaders, educators and attorneys as early as today, city officials said.

Meanwhile, Lomax said she met with the mayor immediately after she was spurned for the powerful commission post to request that he not rule her out for another appointment.

“I should continue to be under serious consideration for some position in city government,” Lomax said. “Hopefully, I won’t be put on another hot seat.”

The mayor’s directive came a day after the City Council rejected the appointment. Of particular concern to some council members was that Lomax left the Police Commission after she was accused of leaking confidential documents to a civil rights group seeking Police Chief Daryl F. Gates’ ouster after the beating of Rodney G. King. Lomax was later cleared of any wrongdoing by the State Bar.

Beyond that, her detractors on the council complained that Lomax did not have a strong track record in environmental issues.

The council’s action was blasted by Lomax’s supporters in the minority community, including Bradley, who said it suggests that council members feel an African-American lacks the skills and experience to tackle tough environmental litigation and policy development.

Determined to avoid another rebuff, the mayor has asked that the list being compiled include candidates with less political baggage but a strong commitment to his goal of increasing diversity on the commission and protecting the environment, Deputy Mayor Mark Fabiani said.

The five-member DWP board currently has four Anglos and one Latino.

“So far, we have a list of about a dozen potential candidates,” Fabiani said. “I expect the next person who is appointed will be confirmed easily and quickly because the Gates issue won’t be there anymore.”

Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas, one of four council members who supported Lomax’s appointment, said he was asked late Tuesday by Bradley to help find a replacement who would fight to resolve “substantial problems in the DWP regarding disparity in the workplace with respect to gender and ethnicity.”

“Those who made the egregious mistake of not confirming Melanie Lomax won’t have the argument they used in that instance,” Ridley-Thomas said.

Environmental groups opposed to the Lomax appointment were preparing their own list of African-American candidates to the board of the city-owned utility, which has an annual budget of more than $3 billion and about 11,500 employees.

Tom Soto, president of the Coalition for Clean Air, has recommended Metropolitan Water District Commissioner Carolyn Green and W. Anthony Willoughby, who chaired the mayor’s committee on water rates. Others have recommended Marilyn Morton, president of the city Environmental Affairs Commission.

“I don’t think Melanie Lomax was a bad choice,” Soto said. “But as environmental activists, we are very concerned this spot be occupied by someone with a history of policy and planning in the environmental issues.”

Adi Liberman, director of Heal the Bay, said that although his group opposed Lomax, “we strongly agree that the slot has to be filled with minority candidates because of affirmative action concerns at DWP and the impact DWP policies have on minority communities.”

“I don’t think there will be a problem finding a non-white, non-Westside candidate for this position who has good, strong environmental credentials,” Liberman said.

“Waste treatment plants and dump sites are often placed in minority communities, which also face the worst air quality in the city,” Liberman said. “Meanwhile, zoning decisions put additional pollution in minority communities.”

Lomax said that environmentalists were “changing their tune” after witnessing the swift negative reaction in minority communities to her rejection by the council.

“The environmental movement . . . shot itself in the foot by taking a patently absurd position that pitted minorities against the environmentalists,” Lomax said. “They are now attempting to create an impression that they understand that affirmative action and the environment are not mutually exclusive.”

But one black elected official, City Councilman Nate Holden, took a swipe at Lomax on Wednesday, denying her claim that she had asked him to support her appointment to the commission. Lomax on Tuesday had lamented that Holden was absent from the council when it voted on the matter.

“Melanie Lomax’s statement is totally untrue. She has never spoken to me about her nomination,” Holden said in a prepared statement. “As far as my absence is concerned, Melanie Lomax’s confirmation was not on the last published council agenda before I started my vacation. Therefore, I had no way of knowing her confirmation had been scheduled.”