ELECTIONS / L.A. CITY COUNCIL : 2 African-American Groups Endorse Alarcon : The 7th District candidate apologizes for claiming support from head of the Valley’s NAACP chapter.

City Council candidate Richard Alarcon picked up two key endorsements from African-American community leaders on Saturday and apologized for claiming that the head of the San Fernando Valley NAACP endorsed him.

The San Fernando Valley Ministerial Alliance and Focus 90’s--a coalition of homeowner, activist and business groups--voted to support Alarcon, who is running against retired fire captain Lyle Hall to represent the 7th District.

The winner will replace Councilman Ernani Bernardi, who is retiring after holding the seat for eight terms.

“The main reason we’re supporting Alarcon is we feel he has the best sense of all of the ethnic groups in the community,” said Fred Taylor, president of Focus 90’s. “He brings that initially to the table, whereas somebody else would have to develop those contacts and knowledge.”

The ministers’ group was divided, however, with eight of 13 members voting to support Alarcon and five supporting Hall.

“We were very impressed with Richard Alarcon,” said Pastor James E. Wade of the Universal Church in Pacoima. But he was not convinced that either candidate would do a good job addressing the African-American community’s needs, Wade said.

“They say a whole lot to get in and we don’t believe some of it,” he said. “In fact, about half of it we don’t believe.”

Four years ago, the ministers’ group endorsed Hall--who at that time was running against Bernardi and who forced the incumbent into an unprecedented runoff. Focus 90’s endorsed Bernardi.

Alarcon conceded he does not have the support of all of the district’s African-American leaders. LeRoy Chase, president of the Boys & Girls Club of the San Fernando Valley and the third top vote-getter in the AprIl pRimaRy election, has endorsed Hall.

But Alarcon said he was “very pleased” with the ministerial alliance’s endorsement.

“No candidate could get all of the African-American vote or all of the Latino vote or all of the Anglo vote,” he said.

He accused Hall of using “the Westside political machine” to try to dissuade the ministers from supporting him. One Alarcon supporter even suggested that Hall promised to “give the ministers a contribution” to gain their support.

“It reaffirms that people aren’t fooled by promises,” Alarcon said.

The candidate apologized for saying last week that he had won the support of the Rev. Zedar E. Broadous, head of the San Fernando Valley branch of the NAACP. Although Zedar had given Alarcon a check for $100, he said the money was not intended as an endorsement by him or the NAACP.

“I have apologized to Zedar for mentioning his name to the L.A. Times,” Alarcon said.

He said the mistake was made because he has never before run for office and is a novice at political campaigns.

The Hall campaign maintained its candidate--a former labor leader who has won support from traditional Democratic Party sources--is running well with African-Americans, who make up 19% of the voters in the northeast Valley district.