City Hall Job Given Wife of Congressman : Appointments: Riordan selects Janis Berman to assess suggestions for improving L.A. and polishing its public image.

In a move that gave his administration an in-house tie to Washington, Mayor Richard Riordan has hired the wife of a prominent Democratic congressman to assess the hundreds of suggestions for bettering Los Angeles that are pouring into City Hall.

Janis Berman, wife of Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Panorama City), has been appointed to a newly created post handling public affairs or intergovernmental relations, William McCarley, Riordan’s chief of staff, confirmed Thursday.

He called Berman, who lives in Sherman Oaks, “an interesting and energetic woman” who “offered her services to us.”

Berman, 47, has been active in Democratic politics as well as in her husband’s career for more than 15 years. She served as president of the board of directors of the California Museum of Science and Industry in the early 1980s and has worked with gang and former gang members in a much-praised program in Howard Berman’s northeast San Fernando Valley district in recent years.

“I love Los Angeles and want to see it get back to being a leading innovator and on the cutting edge of the country,” Janis Berman said Thursday, while en route to California from Washington. “Mayor Riordan was very open to my ideas.”

Berman’s appointment--which is not subject to City Council confirmation--was widely seen by political observers as part of the new mayor’s effort to include a cross-section of the city in his administration, in addition to the Valley and Republican figures who backed his campaign and have dominated his early appointments. Howard Berman is a prominent liberal and has long been a leader in the Jewish community on the Westside as well as in the Valley.

Others saw it as an example of Riordan paying back campaign-related debts. During the hard-fought, nominally nonpartisan race between Republican Riordan and Democrat Michael Woo, Howard Berman did not follow the example of his longtime liberal ally, Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles), who actively backed Woo.

Instead, Berman remained publicly silent about the mayor’s race, although some political observers say the Panorama City Democrat privately aided the Riordan campaign with advice and introductions to the Jewish community. Berman said he communicated with both candidates.

Shortly after Riordan’s election, Berman offered to lend his support at the congressional level to Riordan’s plan to use city airport profits to pay for more police--aid that the mayor may greatly need to get Congress and the Federal Aviation Administration to go along with the plan. Berman has been outspoken since the Los Angeles riots about the need to bolster the Police Department.

Rep. Berman said Thursday that his actions during or since the campaign had nothing to do with his wife’s appointment.

“I do not make judgments about political endorsements on that basis,” Berman said. “No one ever suggested (that Riordan would hire his wife), hinted at it or implied it. I think anyone who knows me knows I would never make a judgment on that basis.”

Of his wife, he said: “She is an individual in her own right who has many talents and cares deeply about the city. This is not unique, unusual or inappropriate.”

Janis Berman is outspoken, free-spirited and assertive. For many months, she waged an unsuccessful campaign, in private and public, to persuade her husband to give up his increasingly influential role in Washington and run for mayor himself.

Although she is a Democrat, her political ideas are not far removed from those of Republican Riordan. She is California co-chairwoman of the Democratic Leadership Council, the organization established by moderate Democrats that provided many of the ideas behind Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign.

“I’m not sure exactly when I became estranged from the California Democratic Party,” Janis Berman wrote in a recently published California DLC newsletter. “The Democrats can no longer afford the view that business is always wrong, the police are always wrong or, in international affairs, America is always wrong.”

She was also open about her support for Riordan’s election.

Nonetheless, she was honored in May by the Democratic Party of the San Fernando Valley, in particular for her work with “The Wednesday Night Regulars”--Latino gang members who meet weekly at Pacoima Park to air their concerns, undertake community projects and learn about employment, education and other programs.

She said she spoke to Riordan and his aides during the campaign “about my concerns, including promoting the entertainment industry, some strategy positions on San Fernando Valley issues and beefing up our congressional office in Washington to compete with New York, Chicago, Philadelphia and Dallas.”

She said she was offered the newly created position following a 2 1/2-hour meeting with Riordan and McCarley about 10 days ago. She starts Aug. 2 and will report to the mayor and his chief of staff.

“We’re getting hundreds of offers and proposals on how to save Los Angeles,” McCarley said. “Janis Berman’s job will be to sort through these proposals, determine which ones are meritorious and then to help see that they are implemented.”

One or two other staff members will work with Berman, McCarley said. But he added, “She’s not going to be the head of anything.” He refused to disclose Berman’s salary.

Among the types of proposals Berman might work on, McCarley said, would be one to polish the city’s image, battered lately by ongoing economic and social problems and national news media reports. A public relations company, Ketchum Communications, Inc., has already offered to design, without fee, a media campaign to revive the city’s reputation.

In other appointments, Riordan on Thursday announced the selection of screenwriter Gary Ross to the city’s Library Commission. Ross’ credits include the films “Big” and “Dave,” the latter a send-up of Washington politics.

Ross, a Studio City resident, is a longtime Democratic Party activist who campaigned for both President Clinton and 1988 Democratic Presidential contender Michael Dukakis. Ross’ wife, Allison Thomas, was a staff member in the Carter Administration and also worked for former Gov. Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown Jr.

In other developments, the Riordan Administration submitted what is expected to be its last report on the private funding for its transition into office.

The report to the city controller’s office showed that a variety of corporate interests provided the vast majority of the most recent contributions. A company competing to sell bonds for the Los Angeles Convention Center was among the donors. Grigsby Brandford & Co. donated $5,000.

Other major donations came from the law firm owned by lobbyist and former Councilman Art Snyder, $5,000; principal subway contractor Tutor-Saliba, $5,000; Valley Magazine, $5,000; stock broker Bear Stearns & Co., $2,500; the law firm of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, $3,000, and entertainment firm J. NED Inc., $2,500. The total amount that can be spent on the transition--mostly for salaries paid to Riordan employees between his June 8 election and July 1 swearing in--was recently increased by the City Council from $100,000 to $150,000.

Times staff writers James Rainey and Greg Krikorian contributed to this story.