Padilla Defends Bernson Ouster as Battle Heats Up

A generation gap ripped open Thursday in the San Fernando Valley’s political leadership, with new Los Angeles City Council President Alex Padilla charging that a group of complaining elders is “desperate to retain power.”

Padilla, 28, of Pacoima, was responding through an aide to a sharp attack by Valley council veteran Hal Bernson and several other Valley civic leaders who voiced outrage after Padilla dumped Bernson from an influential panel studying secession.

Bernson, 70, of Granada Hills, alleged that Padilla’s choice of Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski to replace him was illegal, and he filed formal complaints Thursday with the Ethics Commission and city attorney.

Joining Bernson at a City Hall news conference was a bevy of longtime Valley leaders, including city Police Commissioner Bert Boeckmann, former Fire Commission President David Fleming, and Richard Close, who heads the Valley secession bid. The leaders called for Bernson to be reinstated.

“This is a slap in the face of the San Fernando Valley,” Bernson said.

Bernson, who said he is neutral on secession, described Miscikowski as a leading opponent of cityhood for the Valley and harbor area.

Padilla’s camp quickly counterpunched, noting that Bernson has been fined three times in recent years for ethics violations.

“For Hal Bernson to complain to the Ethics Commission is like Robert Downey Jr. complaining to the Drug Enforcement Administration,” said Padilla aide David Gershwin. Padilla later endorsed that comment.

Fleming, an attorney, said the move “is like changing judges in the middle of a trial.”

Boeckmann said that although he respects Miscikowski, her appointment “is an attempt to slow down or stop the movement for Valley independence, and I think that is wrong.”

Bernson, who was part of a Valley secession group in the 1970s, said Padilla told him he appointed Miscikowski to the Local Agency Formation Commission post in exchange for her support of his successful bid last month for the council presidency. Padilla called that “absolutely false.”

“There was no quid pro quo,” he said. “I appointed her because she was the best for the job.”

The city attorney’s office confirmed that it has preliminarily determined Padilla had authority to remove Bernson.

Gershwin also disputed Bernson’s claim of neutrality on secession, calling the 22-year council veteran “the Robert E. Lee of the Valley,” a reference to the Civil War leader from the South.

“I think Councilman Bernson has realized that his political career is sun-setting, sooner rather than later, and this is the last dying gasp of the old San Fernando Valley,” Gershwin told reporters. “We did not see the new changing face of the San Fernando Valley at this press conference today. We saw a last desperate attempt to retain power.”

Miscikowski, a Westside resident whose district includes part of the south Valley, said she received 76% of the vote in some areas there. She noted that Bernson was joined at the news conference by Close, who leads Valley VOTE, the main Valley secession group, and its major financial backers, Fleming and Boeckmann.

“I don’t know how that speaks to Hal being neutral,” she said.

Padilla said, “The people at the [Bernson] press conference have historically been associated as the Valley’s leaders, and I respect them. But I do think the Valley and the city are evolving politically. This is a moment of transition.”