Bernson Wins Round in Sunshine Dump Fight : Litigation: The councilman persuades colleagues to continue bankrolling his opposition to a new landfill.

After a passionate appeal to his increasingly doubtful colleagues, Los Angeles City Councilman Hal Bernson won a skirmish Wednesday in his bid to have the city continue to bankroll his fight against a new Sunshine Canyon landfill.

The council voted 10 to 1 to pay an additional $80,000 in legal fees to the private law firm it has hired to fight plans for a new dump just north of Granada Hills. The council previously had authorized spending $465,000 on legal fees.

Council members also urged city officials to renew efforts to settle the case, giving them two weeks to report back.

Bernson, who represents the affected area and has been a staunch opponent of the landfill plan by Browning-Ferris Industries Inc., pleaded with his colleagues to support the litigation, although several of his colleagues questioned the merit of the expensive lawsuit.

Unless the extra litigation costs are paid, Bernson warned Wednesday, the fight against the landfill would collapse.

“To give in now would be crazy,” Bernson said.

Bernson also reminded his colleagues that he had backed pet projects in their districts and supported council actions to close two other landfills that impinged on residential areas--Mission Canyon and Toyon Canyon, both in the Santa Monica Mountains.

“You’ve come to me for support, and I have given it,” Bernson said.

Despite the heavy legal costs, the city has failed to score any decisive victories in court. It has won a handful of narrow procedural fights on the issue of whether the environmental review of the Browning-Ferris plan was adequate. The case is now before the California Court of Appeal.

The city has retained the politically powerful law firm of Manatt, Phelps, Phillips & Kantor to carry out the litigation. Mickey Kantor was Gov. Bill Clinton’s campaign chairman.

Deputy City Atty. Keith W. Pritsker said the $80,000 payment would finance the city’s case through the appeal court but would not be enough to pay for an appeal to the California Supreme Court. No date has been set for oral arguments before the appellate court panel.

Bernson almost lost his bid for more money Tuesday, when the council fell one vote short of killing the expenditure.

On Wednesday, council members Joan Milke Flores and Mike Hernandez warned Bernson that there was little likelihood they would agree to any additional payments.

“I’m going to support this one, but not the next one,” said Hernandez, who contended that, when Bernson and city attorney officials last March asked for an additional $100,000 to fund the lawsuit, it was represented as “the last time.”

“Somebody’s been misrepresenting the facts to the council,” Hernandez said.

Hernandez complained that the expenditures detract from the recession-pinched city’s ability to fund more important services, including police.

“I don’t consider what the courts have ruled a win,” said Flores, sharply contradicting Bernson’s own assessment of the city’s successes in the litigation.

Flores, who finally voted with Bernson, urged the city to explore a settlement as an alternative to legal fighting that “creates more work for attorneys.”

Casting the sole vote against the expenditure was Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas.

Ernie Berghoff, chief lobbyist for Browning-Ferris, predicted that the council debate Wednesday spells big trouble for any request by Bernson for more funds for this litigation. “That’s my reading of the vote,” Berghoff said.

Browning-Ferris, a huge solid waste management firm, owns Sunshine Canyon and has gotten approval from the county of Los Angeles to develop a 17-million-ton landfill at the site.

Browning-Ferris is now seeking a new permit to develop a separate landfill on that portion of its Sunshine Canyon property located in the city of Los Angeles.