Bernardi Hires Petition Pros in Drive to Erase Council Remap

Los Angeles City Councilman Ernani Bernardi has hired a political firm with a perfect record of qualifying initiatives for the ballot to conduct his petition drive to repeal the City Council redistricting approved last year.

Redistricting was bitterly opposed by many San Fernando Valley residents because it assigned them council representatives whom they did not elect and who were unfamiliar with their areas.

Bernardi’s initiative would put into effect a redistricting formula approved by the council before Councilman Howard Finn’s death last August. It would return the 1st District, which has been shifted to the downtown Los Angeles area, to the northeast Valley and, along with it, newly elected Councilwoman Gloria Molina.

It also would put councilmen John Ferraro and Michael Woo in the same Hollywood-Wilshire district and make them likely opponents in an election.

8,000 Signatures So Far

Even Bernardi’s critics acknowledge that his hiring of American Petition Consultants Inc. of Sacramento should improve the councilman’s chances of gathering the 69,516 signatures required to qualify the initiative for a vote in June, 1988. Supporters of the initiative have gathered about 8,000 signatures so far.

This is its first effort on behalf of a Los Angeles city initiative, but the firm has qualified more than two dozen local and statewide initiatives in California, including two statewide initiatives on reapportionment in 1983 and 1984. It’s most recent success was the “English-only” initiative overwhelmingly approved by California voters last November, said the company’s president, Michael Arno.

The firm plans to hire about 40 people to circulate petitions at movie theaters, shopping centers and other locations with high pedestrian traffic, paying 25 cents to 30 cents for each signature they gather, Arno said. Bernardi refused to say what he will pay the company, but Arno said it is less than $60,000.

Committee Soliciting Funds

Bernardi has established the Committee for Fair Redistricting to solicit contributions for the campaign. It has raised less than $10,000, a Bernardi aide said. However, Bernardi’s reelection-campaign fund contained about $35,000 as of Dec. 31, all of which he could use for the initiative campaign.

Bernardi said he hired the firm because he doesn’t have time to run the campaign. The councilman, who has relied on volunteers for previous initiative campaigns, said a recent change in the law has shortened the time allowed for qualifying an initiative from six months to four months. It is difficult, he said, to mobilize the number of volunteers needed to gather signatures within the new time limits.

Bernardi, who has made a career of attacking the political establishment, downplayed his hiring of a professional political consultant. “Even Gann and Jarvis had to rely more and more on professionals,” Bernardi said, referring to Paul Gann and the late Howard Jarvis. Both have sponsored successful initiatives, including Proposition 13.

‘You Have to Buy Signatures’

Arno said that, since 1980 no initiative has qualified for the statewide ballot in California without paid signature gatherers. “It’s just a political reality that you have to buy signatures at some point,” he said.

The redistricting initiative seeks to repeal the districts approved by the council last fall. That redistricting eliminated the northeast Valley’s 1st District, previously represented by Finn, and divided the territory between Bernardi and Councilman Joel Wachs. It created a new 1st District in a predominantly Latino area near downtown Los Angeles.

The shuffling of districts was approved to settle a federal lawsuit seeking increased Latino representation on the council. It also headed off a fight between incumbents Ferraro and Woo, who would have been placed in the same district under the formula approved before Finn’s death.

Even if Bernardi’s initiative qualifies for the ballot, it faces legal and political obstacles.

Supporters must win approval of a majority of voters citywide. Opposition to the council redistricting was largely limited to the East Valley, which was most affected by the new districts. In addition, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, which joined in the Justice Department’s 1985 lawsuit, has threatened to challenge the initiative in court if it passes. The group contends that the initiative would represent a setback for Latinos.

Arno said his firm hopes to turn in signatures qualifying the initiative on Aug. 12, the first anniversary of Finn’s death. Finn’s widow, Anne, is a co-sponsor of the initiative campaign.