Noted Valley Attorney to Head Fire Commission

David W. Fleming, a prominent Valley business leader and close ally of Mayor Richard Riordan, has been elected president of the Los Angeles City Fire Commission.

Fleming served as commission president for two prior terms, from 1995 to 1997. Fleming was appointed to the panel in 1993 by Riordan, who once called him “the man most likely to fall on a grenade for me.”

An attorney with the firm Latham & Watkins, Fleming will be co-chairman of a committee aimed at promoting the $744-million bond to upgrade police and fire stations. Voters will decide the bond’s fate in April, with Riordan--who once called Fleming “the man most likely to fall on a grenade for me”--writing the ballot argument favoring the bond measure.

Fleming will serve out the remainder of commission president Michael R. Yamaki’s term, which ends in July. Yamaki resigned last month after he was named special assistant to Gov. Gray Davis.

Past president of the Valley Industry and Commerce Assn. and a recipient of the Fernando Award for volunteerism, Fleming also sits on the California Transportation Commission. A longtime proponent of charter reform, he has recently emerged as one of the financial backers of the drive to study Valley secession.