Parks will seek Burke’s board seat

Los Angeles City Councilman Bernard C. Parks took the first step Monday toward running for the seat held by county Supervisor Yvonne B. Burke, forming a committee that would allow him to raise money for the June 8 election.

Parks, a former Los Angeles police chief who has served on the council for four years, is the first politician to make such a move toward seeking the seat, which encompasses much of South Los Angeles as well as the recently closed Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital.

If Parks wins, he could wind up shaking up the politics of the five-member board, which has three Democrats and two Republicans, although the offices are nonpartisan. Parks, a Democrat, has taken some of the most fiscally conservative positions on the City Council.

The 63-year-old councilman cast the lone vote three years ago against pay hikes for police officers and firefighters, calling the deals too extravagant. He opposed efforts to regulate Wal-Mart, saying the retail chain had done positive things by opening a store in his district.

And while running for mayor in 2005, Parks criticized the city’s rent control law, saying it kept mom-and-pop landlords from making repairs to their buildings.

On Monday, Parks said he should not be judged on any single vote but rather on his five-year effort to safeguard the budget and bring more services to his constituents -- from expanded library hours to the decision to put money into the $100-million affordable-housing trust fund.

“Anyone can go pick out one particular issue and find what they like or dislike,” he said. “I think you’ve got to look at the whole body of work.”

Parks is one of several politicians who have eyed a run for the 2nd Supervisorial District, which stretches from Culver City and Mar Vista on the northwest to Carson and Compton on the southeast.

So far, his likeliest opponent is seen as being state Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas (D-Los Angeles), who served the same council district as Parks.

Burke, who has announced plans to step down at the end of her term next year, said she won’t endorse a replacement until much closer to the election.

But Parks has already picked up the backing of Supervisor Michael Antonovich, the board’s most conservative member, who said the former chief would “bring peace and civility to the Board of Supervisors.”

“He’s a fiscal conservative, but he also recognizes that public safety is the first line of protection for our community,” Antonovich said.

Councilman Herb Wesson, who campaigned for Burke when she won the seat in 1992, predicted that Parks may need at least $2 million to win the seat. Wesson, who weighed a run himself, voiced doubts that ideology will affect Parks’ bid.

“Being progressive or conservative, I don’t think that matters as much as dealing with the constituents’ concerns and dealing with the policy concerns,” he said.

Parks served as chief of the Los Angeles Police Department from 1997 to 2002, when then-Mayor James K. Hahn declined to give him a second five-year term.

A year later, he ran for and won a seat on the council, where he quickly ascended to the powerful post of budget committee chairman.

If Parks wins, he would occupy the post held for 40 years by Hahn’s father, the late county Supervisor Kenneth Hahn.

david.zahniser@latimes.com