Council Votes to Fire Official for Sex Harassment : Government: The 10-3 decision upholds Bradley’s decision to dismiss City Clerk Martinez over charges of misconduct. He will appeal to the Civil Service Commission.

The Los Angeles City Council voted to fire Elias (Lee) Martinez on Wednesday, but the embattled city clerk vowed to continue his fight to retain his job by appealing to the city’s Civil Service Commission.

The council, by a 10-3 vote, upheld Mayor Tom Bradley’s effort to remove Martinez, in the wake of allegations that he sexually harassed several women on his staff.

The closed session vote, following a final plea from Martinez for a new hearing, ended more than four months of delays since Bradley recommended that the 32-year city employee be removed.

In a news conference outside his office, a somber Martinez renewed his charge that Bradley’s call for his termination was politically motivated. The veteran clerk said he had angered the mayor when he placed a measure on the 1991 ballot that had been inadvertently signed by Bradley, reducing the mayor’s power over city boards and commissions.

Martinez, 54, said he looks forward to the full airing of the sexual harassment allegations that he will get from a city hearing officer--who will then present the case to the Civil Service Commission.

“I will achieve the vindication I am due,” he predicted. “I am proud of the way I have carried out the responsibilities of my office.”

Martinez has been accused of fondling one of his employees on three occasions and of ogling or asking suggestive questions of three others. The clerk, who began a storybook rise through the city ranks as a garage attendant, said his principal accuser is a known drunk who is not trusted by other employees. He said the other women had merely misinterpreted what he considered to be friendly gestures.

Martinez’s appeal to the Civil Service Commission could drag out a painstaking and politically charged termination process that became public last December when Bradley recommended that his onetime ally be fired.

It could take as much as three months before the commission rules on Martinez’s appeal, during which he will receive his full salary, which totals $116,000 for a year.

The drawn-out procedure would probably put Martinez’s fate in the hands of a new mayor and a new Civil Service Commission--since Bradley leaves office at the end of this month and most of his commissioners are likely to leave office with him.

City Councilman Michael Woo, one of two finalists in the mayor’s race, cast one of the 10 votes to fire Martinez. But his opponent, businessman Richard Riordan, has not expressed an opinion on Martinez.

Martinez and his allies on the City Council were accused last month of trying to stall the case in hopes of obtaining leniency from a new mayor. The clerk’s lawyer, Robert Dohrmann, denied any delaying, but conceded that Martinez might have a better chance in retaining his $116,000-a-year job under a new mayor.

Even under that scenario, though, the City Council may have the final say. With 10 votes, the council could override the Civil Service Commission and sustain the firing.

Ironically, it was Martinez who helped give the council that power by placing on the ballot the measure which gave the City Council authority to override commissions.

Only three council members--Hal Bernson, Richard Alatorre and Mike Hernandez--supported Martinez in Wednesday’s closed session vote. Council members Joel Wachs, Woo, Joy Picus, John Ferraro, Zev Yaroslavsky, Ruth Galanter, Ernani Bernardi, Mark Ridley-Thomas, Rita Walters and Marvin Braude voted for termination.

Joan Milke Flores was absent and Councilman Nate Holden did not participate because he faces accusations of sexual harassment.