Mayor Calls for City Clerk’s Dismissal Over Allegations : City Hall: Bradley seeks council OK to oust Martinez after sexual harassment charges.

Mayor Tom Bradley recommended firing Los Angeles City Clerk Elias (Lee) Martinez, accused of sexually harassing female members of his staff, in a letter received by City Council members Monday.

Aides to several council members said Bradley asked the council to support him in seeking the ouster of the 54-year-old Martinez, one of the city’s few Latino department heads.

The City Charter requires the council to confirm a decision by Bradley to fire Martinez, who heads an office that provides staff services to council members, keeps all council records and administers city elections. Bradley picked Martinez to head the clerk’s office in 1982.

After starting out as a garage attendant at City Hall three decades ago, Martinez rose to head the clerk’s office and to become city employee of the year in 1985.

Martinez, who lives in San Marino and is paid $116,322 a year, could not be reached for comment late Monday.

The Bradley letter contains graphic descriptions of Martinez’s alleged sexual improprieties, according to council aides. The names of the alleged victims were blacked out, one official said.

Council President John Ferraro said last month that he had received a letter a year ago from a clerk complaining that Martinez, her boss, had sexually harassed her on several occasions. The 31-year-old woman, who has refused requests for interviews, now works in another city department.

The letter to Ferraro, forwarded to the mayor’s office, triggered a protracted investigation by the city Personnel Department that uncovered other allegations of sexual misconduct, the aides said.

Last month, Deputy Mayor Mark Fabiani held a fact-finding hearing to review the claims against Martinez. Such a hearing is required by law before any disciplinary action can be taken.

Martinez is the third department head Bradley has moved to fire in the past 10 years.

In the 1980s, Bradley proposed firing Sylvia Cunliffe, general manager of the city’s General Services Department, for allegedly misusing her office and for libeling a city employee who, as a whistle-blower, had reported serious management problems in her department.

Cunliffe, best known as the impresario of the city’s now-defunct music festival, Street Scene, resigned under threat of dismissal.

Likewise, Fred Croton, former head of the city’s Cultural Affairs Department, also resigned before the council confirmed Bradley’s decision to dismiss him. Bradley proposed firing Croton, who had feuded with some in the city’s arts community, on the grounds that he had lied on his city job application.

Martinez incurred the wrath of the Bradley Administration in 1991 when he rejected the mayor’s appeal for a “second chance” to veto a piece of legislation that he had mistakenly signed into law.

The legislation helped place a measure on the ballot--later approved by voters--that trimmed the mayor’s powers by giving the City Council authority to review decisions made by a handful of independent city commissions. These commissions had been answerable to the mayor.