112 Candidates Vie for Charter Reform Panel

Two former assemblywomen, a teachers’ union leader, a noted law professor and dozens of community activists are among the 112 candidates who filed by Monday’s deadline to run for a city charter reform panel.

Most of the candidates live in the San Fernando Valley where a threatened secession prompted Mayor Richard Riordan to launch an initiative effort to create a panel that would overhaul the city’s aging governing charter.

But the reform effort has become the center of a political feud between the mayor and a majority of the City Council, which has created a separate appointed panel that has already begun studying ways of overhauling the 72-year-old charter.

The candidates for the elected panel include:

* Paula Boland, former assemblywoman from Granada Hills who unsuccessfully championed a bill to make a Valley secession easier;

* Marguerite Archie-Hudson, former assemblywoman who is a member of the competing charter panel created by the council;

* Erwin Chemerinsky, a USC law professor;

* Janice Hahn, a businesswoman and sister of City Atty. James K. Hahn;

* Helen Bernstein, the former president of United Teachers-Los Angeles and a top Riordan advisor on education.

* Gary Thomas, past president of the San Fernando Valley United Chambers of Commerce;

* Marvin Selter, chairman of the Valley Industry and Commerce Assn.;

* Anne Finn, a community activist and widow of former Valley Councilman Howard Finn;

* Jeff Brain, a Sherman Oaks businessman who ran unsuccessfully for the City Council two years ago.

* David Tokofsky, a school board member;

* Ferd Eggan, the city’s AIDS coordinator.

City officials say the high number of candidates vying for all 15 positions indicate a strong interest among city residents to reform the charter.

But since launching the effort, Riordan has been accused by critics of planning to fund a slate of candidates who will rewrite the charter to increase the mayor’s authority at the expense of the council.

Riordan associates say the mayor has not created a slate but is likely to support a few select candidates.

“At this stage of the game, he just wants to see who is out there,” said David Fleming, a Studio City attorney who teamed up with Riordan to launch the reform plan.

Fleming said he believes Riordan will support Bernstein. He said the mayor is also likely to endorse Christine Robert, a Riordan appointee to the Community Redevelopment Agency who was a plaintiff in a lawsuit that Riordan filed to clear up legal problems plaguing the reform effort.

To appear on the ballot, candidates must still collect up to 1,000 signatures of registered voters on a nominating petition or pay a $300 fee and collect only 500 signatures.

If elected, the charter commission members would work without pay for nearly two years, studying ways to streamline and improve the charter. Money for the commission’s staffing is expected to come from donations from business and civil leaders.

Charter revisions made by the commission would be placed on a future ballot for approval by the voters.

The 680-page charter acts as a governmental blueprint. But critics say it is out of date and must be rewritten to reflect a more diverse and modern city.

If voters decide on April 8 to approve Riordan’s measure to create the reform panel, a second measure on the same ballot will ask them to choose one candidate from each of the 15 council districts.