5 Activists Tell Plans to Challenge Bernson

Five community activists from the northwest San Fernando Valley said Sunday that they intend to challenge Los Angeles City Councilman Hal Bernson in the April primary, promising to campaign against the incumbent but not against each other.

“We are not competing,� said Leonard Shapiro, a longtime Valley activist and would-be candidate. “Our No. 1 priority now is to get Hal Bernson out.�

A Bernson spokesman said the veteran councilman will be running for a fourth term, but could not comment on the campaign strategy of potential opponents. Bernson was in Sacramento attending a meeting and was unavailable, said Ali Sar, Bernson’s press deputy.

Shapiro and 27 other residents of the 12th District met for two hours at Chatsworth High School to plot Bernson’s ouster. A recently organized group of Bernson opponents called We the People sponsored the meeting.

Also pledging to file as candidates before the Jan. 14 deadline were Walter Prince, a janitorial-service owner who led a failed recall drive against Bernson; Arthur (Larry) Kagele, a Los Angeles Police Department detective; Fred Kuretski, a professor of cinema at Cal State Northridge, and Allen R. Hecht, a printer and Bernson appointee to the city’s Solid Waste Advisory Group.

Hecht and other speakers said they had grown disillusioned with Bernson, charging that he has catered to developers who contributed heavily to his campaigns. Several said they opposed his support of the massive Porter Ranch development.

“I feel he has betrayed his community,� Hecht said.

The speakers promised to make ethics a major campaign issue.

The strategy discussed Sunday was reminiscent of tactics used by a band of eight candidates who challenged County Supervisor Mike Antonovich in 1988. The candidates hoped that they would each draw off votes from Antonovich and thus force the supervisor into a runoff.

The tactic partly worked. Antonovich received only 45% of the primary vote and faced former Supervisor Baxter Ward in the runoff five months later. Antonovich trounced Ward in the general election.

On Sunday, 12th District residents said their first goal is to prevent Bernson from sailing through the April 9 primary. Some held out hope that Los Angeles school board member Julie Korenstein, a well-known figure in the northwest Valley, would enter the race.