Ethnic Mix, Valley Clout Mark Riordan Appointees : Politics: Mayor’s choices for citizen panels include six Latinos, five African-Americans, four Asian-Americans.

In a sweeping set of appointments that are critical to implementing his proposals, Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan on Friday filled five citizen commissions with representatives from all the city’s major ethnic groups and gave a strong nod of recognition to his supporters in the San Fernando Valley.

In appointing Ted Stein of Encino as a commissioner and senior policy adviser, Riordan acknowledged the heavy support the area gave him in his victory last month over City Councilman Michael Woo. He also appointed eight other Valley residents to posts on each of the five citizen commissions.

“I think it’s clear that the San Fernando Valley will play the same kind of role in his Administration that the Westside did in the previous one,” one prominent City Hall lobbyist said. “He clearly understands who supported him and he is clearly moving a lot of power out there.”

Riordan’s choices for the citizen boards that oversee the airport, Community Redevelopment Agency, Department of Water and Power, Planning Department and Fire Department, and for seats on the countywide Metropolitan Transportation Authority, are an ethnically mixed group. Thirteen are white, six Latino, five African-American and four Asian-American. Exactly half of the 28 appointees are women.

Although the San Fernando Valley is represented by at least one member on each of the five city panels and the county transit agency, South-Central Los Angeles did not fare as well. Only two commissioners appointed Friday live south of the Santa Monica Freeway, and neither lives in South-Central.

At least one commissioner will have to move into the city to qualify for service. Leslie Song Winner, designated for the Fire Commission, lives in Beverly Hills but said she plans to move to downtown Los Angeles next week.

An earlier Riordan appointee to the Police Commission, Enrique Hernandez, had been criticized because he moved to downtown Los Angeles from San Marino shortly before he was selected.

With Stein as its leading light, the Valley’s political star appears on the rise at City Hall.

The former city planning commissioner, lawyer and developer will serve as a top adviser to Riordan as well as joining the Airport Commission--a plum assignment because the mayor has said he plans to turn five city-owned airports into profit machines for the city. Riordan hopes to use the money to hire more police officers.

If Riordan’s selections are confirmed by the City Council, joining Stein on the Airport Commission will be Dan Garcia, an executive at Warner Bros. Studios who was a commissioner under Mayor Tom Bradley; Martha Brown Hicks, president of the nonprofit Skid Row Development Corp.; Patricia Mary Schnegg, a downtown lawyer who founded the Committee on the Status of Women Lawyers, and Warren Valdry, a housing developer and founder of the philanthropic group 100 Black Men.

Nearly one-third of Friday’s appointees live in the San Fernando Valley, home to 35% of the city’s population. Fewer than 20% of Bradley’s commissioners came from the Valley.

Another demonstration of the Valley’s clout is on the newly formed commission of the Community Redevelopment Agency. Former U.S. Rep. Bobbi Fiedler of Northridge will join downtown garment mogul and Studio City resident Stanley Hirsch in delivering a powerful voice for the region on the board, which controls a yearly budget of about $500 million.

Fiedler is a Republican who cut her political teeth as a virulent opponent of busing in the Los Angeles school district. Hirsch is one of the largest political contributors to Democratic politicians in the nation--giving $300,000 over a recent five-year period.

Fiedler complained loudly in the past that downtown Los Angeles has benefited disproportionately from redevelopment.

“My primary concern is that there be a distribution of resources to other parts of the city,” Fiedler said. “That includes, in the Valley, places like Arleta and Pacoima, and also South-Central Los Angeles.”

But Fiedler will face at least some opposition during her confirmation hearings.

“It’s a disastrous appointment,” said Councilwoman Rita Walters. “She is a person who has spent a great deal of her life drawing divisions between people that I think were based on color.”

Walters, who is black, and Fiedler, who is white, were bitter opponents--principally on the issue of busing students for racial integration--when both served on the Los Angeles school board.

Walters supported school busing while Fiedler led efforts to end it.

“I am just sorry that (Walters) chooses to attack people, rather than attack the city’s problems,” Fiedler said.

Hirsch’s appointment could also become controversial because he is a prominent landlord in downtown Los Angeles, where much of the CRA’s business is centered.

“I would think that just about any vote he would cast on downtown redevelopment could hold the seeds of a conflict of interest,” said one lobbyist familiar with redevelopment.

Riordan released a statement saying he does not expect Hirsch’s substantial downtown holdings to cause him problems as a commissioner.

Named with Hirsch and Fiedler to the redevelopment commission were Frank Cardenas, a downtown attorney; Christine Essel, a holdover from Bradley’s commission who is an executive with Paramount Pictures; Shelby Jean Kaplan Sloan, who heads a property management firm, and Peggy Moore, an executive with Home Savings of America.

As expected, Riordan appointed two African-American men to positions on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority--attorney Stan Sanders, who supported Riordan for mayor after losing to him in the primary, and Mel Wilson, a Northridge resident who heads a real estate consulting firm.

As mayor, Riordan controls a substantial bloc on the 13-member MTA board. He holds a seat and also has designated Richard Alatorre for the fourth spot that he controls.

Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky will serve as Riordan’s alternate--considered a plum position because the mayor seldom has time for the commission meetings, leaving the councilman room to wield considerable influence of his own. Several City Hall observers said the appointment illustrates that Riordan is trying to woo Yaroslavsky, a courtship that started when he named Yaroslavsky to head the city’s lobbying effort against state budget cuts.

The appointments mix political newcomers with veteran hands.

Michelle Eunjoo Park-Steel said she became interested in politics after last spring’s riots when she saw the damage faced by fellow Korean-Americans.

Winner worked in City Hall in the 1970s as press secretary and chief of staff to former Councilman David Cunningham.

Several Bradley commissioners also found new posts with the Riordan Administration.

Constance L. Rice, former president of the Water and Power Commission, was reappointed.

Also named to Water and Power were Dennis A. Tito, a prominent investment counselor; Jose de Jesus Legaspi, a real estate broker; Judy M. Miller, an executive for the Century Council, a group sponsored by the alcohol industry that advocates drinking in moderation, and Marcia F. Volpert, president of the Los Angeles County Board of Education.

The appointments include some of Los Angeles’ wealthiest citizens.

Tito lives in a Pacific Palisades mansion with an eight-car garage, 50 telephones, 20 televisions and a clothes closet larger than some mobile homes.

Marna Del Mar Schnabel, nominated to the Planning Commission, is married to Rockwell Schnabel, former U.S. ambassador to Finland. She is an architectural designer who is executive vice president of her father’s company, Del Mar Avionics in Costa Mesa.

Also named to the Planning Commission were Les Hamasaki, president of a solar energy company; attorney Robert L. Scott, president of the United Chambers of Commerce of the San Fernando Valley; Shelly S. Suzuki, executive treasurer of an exporting company, and Anthony N.R. Zamora, an attorney who used to serve on the Los Angeles Affordable Housing Commission.

On the fifth panel named Friday, the Fire Commission, the selection of Latino political activist Xavier Hermosillo appeared to be the most controversial.

Hermosillo has come into sharp conflict with black leaders several times, most notably when he opposed efforts to close down riot reconstruction sites that did not employ African-Americans. Hermosillo objected because many of the projects were providing jobs for Latinos.

Others named to the Fire Commission are David W. Fleming, an attorney who used to head the Valley Industry and Commerce Assn. and who Riordan called “Mr. San Fernando Valley,” and Elizabeth Hamilton Lowe, who served with Riordan on the board of Children’s Institute International.

Riordan is expected to make more appointments next week. In all, he will select about 200 citizen commissioners.

* MAYORAL APPOINTMENT: An attorney was picked to wring dollars out of LAX. B1