Mayor Picks 3 Women for CRA Board Seats : Politics: Nomination of a San Pedro lawyer helps quell charges that the south part of the city lacks representation in redevelopment matters.

Mayor Richard Riordan on Tuesday nominated a trio of women to the Community Redevelopment Agency board, including one who helped quell criticism that the board lacked representation for the south side of the city.

Councilman Rudy Svorinich of San Pedro, who chairs the Housing and Community Redevelopment Committee that approves CRA nominees, raised concern more than two months ago that the 25-member board lacked a member who lived south of the Santa Monica Freeway, where the majority of the agency’s newest projects are located. Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas, who represents South-Central Los Angeles and is a frequent critic of the mayor, echoed Svorinich’s concern.

The CRA has shifted focus from building skyscrapers downtown to helping communities hard-hit by the 1992 riots and the 1994 earthquake. Although only 10 of the existing 24 projects are south of the Santa Monica Freeway, five of the seven proposals expected to come before the City Council within the next few months are in that area.

Svorinich said he had delayed action on a previous nominee because the mayor had not consulted him about CRA candidates and because of the geographical lopsidedness of the board.

But Svorinich said Tuesday that he is thrilled with the latest batch of nominees, particularly San Pedro attorney Juanita G. Chavez, and will push them through his committee so they can be sworn in for the CRA’s meeting near the end of January. Ridley-Thomas said he would have preferred a nominee from South-Central rather than one from the far south Harbor area.

Also nominated Tuesday were current board member Bobbi Fiedler, a former Republican congresswoman, and Christine M. Robert, an African American who has long been active in local government.

“Everything’s good. The mayor’s happy, we’re happy,” Svorinich chief of staff Barry Glickman said. “The nomination of Juanita is a major, major step forward for the people south of the 10 freeway.”

Chavez specializes in family law, estate planning and personal injury and previously spent two decades as a teacher and administrator in the Los Angeles Unified School District, according to a release from Riordan’s office. She is active in a variety of community organizations in the harbor area. In a statement, Riordan called Chavez “a tireless leader” and said she would “bring the strong voice of neighborhood and community activism to the CRA board.”

Fiedler, who lives in Northridge, was a leader in the movement against school busing in the 1970s and was later elected to the Los Angeles school board. She is being nominated for a second four-year term that would end in 1999.

Robert recently served on the city’s Transportation Commission, and previously worked for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and Councilwoman Rita Walters. A Hollywood resident, she runs the Robert Group, which focuses on new business development and advocacy for minority-owned businesses.