Another Appointee May Face Grilling : Government: Some on council are questioning the affirmative action views of Carol Rowen, Riordan’s choice for reconfirmation on harbor panel.

The routine reappointment of a Tarzana Republican to the Los Angeles Harbor Commission next week may become the next round of an increasingly contentious boxing match between Mayor Richard Riordan and the City Council.

Carol L. Rowen, a former state Senate candidate who was active in the failed campaign to recall former state Sen. David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles), is likely to be grilled on her views of affirmative action before getting the council’s nod, insiders said Wednesday. On Tuesday, Michelle Park-Steel became the second of Riordan’s commissioners to resign in the past week after bitter battles with the council over affirmative action and the “California civil rights initiative.”

Councilwoman Ruth Galanter voted against confirming Rowen in a meeting this week of the council’s Commerce, Energy and Natural Resources Committee, in part because of Rowen’s response to questions on the issues. Rowen said that she had not read the initiative, that she would uphold the city’s affirmative action policy while on the commission and that she opposes “any form of discrimination.”

Galanter said Rowen’s answers were “almost word for word” what Park-Steel had said during a council hearing last week, and suggested that “there is a script out there” for Riordan appointees who find themselves in opposition to the Democratic council on affirmative action.

In an interview Wednesday, Rowen repeated her blanket opposition to discrimination and her vow to enforce city policy. She said that council members “have a right to their questions,” but that she hopes there will be no litmus test for commissioners on their views of affirmative action or anything else.

“I believe that behavior’s what’s important,” she said. “If you, by behavior, can show who and what you are, then that’s the way you should be judged.”

Also Wednesday, Galanter and four other council members lashed out at Riordan and Park-Steel for their remarks Tuesday regarding Park-Steel’s resignation.

“I do not believe this whole situation has done anything but exacerbate the problems,” Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg said.

“It’s been made abundantly clear that the crisis we have been faced with compounded itself by the remarks,” added Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas. The mayor and his staff “have blundered, and they’ve blundered badly,” Ridley-Thomas said in regard to the Park-Steel situation. “Yesterday was a regrettable chapter in the history of our city.”