Wars of Words : City Hall: Airport commissioner--under pressure for her affirmative action criticism--resigns. She lashes out at council foes.

With a parting volley at her opponents on the Los Angeles City Council, embattled Airport Commissioner Michelle Park-Steel on Tuesday became the second Riordan Administration appointee in less than a week to quit in the face of the gathering storm over affirmative action.

Park-Steel’s resignation, which she announced by reading a pointed statement in the mayor’s conference room, is likely to escalate, not end, the City Council’s confrontations with Mayor Richard Riordan over the divisive issue.

“The real reason for my commission controversy is primarily for my opinions and beliefs,” said Park-Steel, a Korean American who has been critical of affirmative action policies such as those in place at City Hall.

“Clearly, certain City Council members do not understand the distinction between traditional affirmative action outreach and the divisive and awful preferences by gender and race,” Park-Steel added.

She called the council “a caricature” and many of its members “intolerant officials.” She singled out Councilman Nate Holden, an African American whose district includes Koreatown, calling him “a vengeful person who has exploited the Korean community. He is morally and personally corrupt and utterly unqualified to sit in judgment of me.”

She did not elaborate on the character attack, which Holden said left him aghast. “I’m going to consult with my lawyer on that one,” he said. “They went overboard.”

Holden, one of the most vocal opponents of Park-Steel’s commission reappointment, left a council meeting and discussion on racism to rush to the mayor’s conference room to defend himself.

Noting that Park-Steel and her husband, attorney and Republican activist Shawn Steel, had supported Holden’s opponent in his tight reelection bid this spring, the councilman said, “I’ve been totally responsive to the Korean community. . . . I’ll put my record up against his and hers any time.”

Riordan did not attend the hastily called news conference, but he issued a statement, read by a spokeswoman, praising Park-Steel’s “integrity, diligence and focus” and expressing “great sadness” in accepting her resignation.

Then the mayor shot back at the council:

“It is unfortunate that some elected officials feel compelled to introduce political rhetoric into a process such as this. In this case, much of the rhetoric is as tall and as thick as a mountain and has not contributed at all to understanding, tolerance or progress in our city.”

Council President John Ferraro, who has advised the mayor and his staff as the Administration has tried to improve its relations with the council, decried the “attacks on the council.”

“I think she did the right thing when she resigned, but I think it’s unfortunate she had to use those intemperate remarks,” Ferraro said. As for the mayor, the councilman added, “Some of his remarks were not in the best taste either . . . and I can’t agree with them.”

Later Tuesday, council members Holden, Jackie Goldberg, Mark Ridley-Thomas, Mike Hernandez and Ruth Galanter scheduled a news conference for this morning to denounce Park-Steel’s resignation statement.

The flap over Park-Steel and Riordan appointee Joe Gelman, who resigned from the Civil Service Commission under pressure last week, is likely to haunt Riordan’s future commission nominees, whose appointments are subject to council approval. Traditionally, the council has accepted the mayor’s wishes in filling seats on policy-setting city commissions. That may no longer be the case.

“The council is extremely concerned” about the mayor’s choices to sit on the panels, said Councilman Hernandez. Park-Steel “really should not have been there in the first place,” he said, adding that he wants her replaced with a Latino or Latina.

The episode also heightened pressure on Riordan to explain his views on affirmative action. In the past, he has said the concept has mainly helped already-successful minorities. Last week, he said he is thoroughly studying the issue and expects to explain his position in detail next month.

While Park-Steel said she was punished by “phony liberals who are intolerant of different opinions,” several council members questioned her veracity and her willingness to uphold city affirmative action policies.

The council narrowly confirmed Park-Steel last week when she promised to uphold city policies aimed at including more minorities and women in hiring, promotions and contracts. Hours later, Gelman issued a press release saying Park-Steel supported a ballot campaign to overturn state affirmative action policies, which are similar to the city’s.

Park-Steel refuted the endorsement, blaming a misunderstanding with Gelman, but Riordan was so angry and embarrassed that he quickly accepted Gelman’s resignation the following day.

But some council members did not believe her. Her husband has solicited money for the state campaign. Park-Steel herself said Tuesday that affirmative action programs based “on race to discriminate against another race only creates a new class of victims. I distrust quotas, preferences and set-asides on the basis of race and gender.”

Park-Steel insisted, however, that she has not yet read the statewide initiative and has not made up her mind about it.

Councilman Richard Alatorre, who informed colleagues of Park-Steel’s resignation, called the flap over her “the height of hypocrisy” and something that denied the Korean American community a voice on an important commission.

Alatorre, the mayor’s closest council ally, said it had become clear to him that nothing short of resignation would satisfy her council opponents. “They were hellbent on getting her and getting the mayor through her. It was political pay-back.”