Hal Bernson

Hal Bernson has finally announced at the April 13 hearing that he backs the $2-billion Porter Ranch plan. This plan is irresponsible development in that his proposed Regional Center is six times the size of the General Plan maximum. Imagine the scope of it: two-thirds the size of Century City. Five times the square footage of the Northridge mall. The environmental impact report estimates 15,000 additional trips per hour of traffic generated by this new development in afternoon rush hours.

Two Los Angeles City Council members are urging the city to resist splitting the San Fernando Valley into two area codes. The state Public Utilities Commission this week designated a new 747 code for the southwest Valley should a new code become necessary. But in a motion submitted to the council Tuesday, members Laura Chick of Tarzana and Hal Bernson of Granada Hills urged the PUC to keep the city portion of the Valley under one area code.

Los Angeles City Councilman Hal Bernson criticized a plan to remove 510 oak trees from Sunshine Canyon in Granada Hills to make way for a proposed landfill expansion. Bernson said Browning Ferris Industries' plan to uproot the trees and begin grading at the Sunshine Canyon landfill was premature because an expansion of the northeast San Fernando Valley site has not been approved. "This is more of BFI trying to bulldoze over community opposition to their expansion," Bernson said.

Los Angeles City Councilman Hal Bernson on Monday named nine top city officials, including Mayor Tom Bradley, to a task force to review and implement scores of recommendations for improving the city's Planning Department proposed in a just-completed management audit. "I've been waiting for the ammo to do some changes in the department for a long time," said Bernson, who chairs the council's Planning and Land Use Management Committee. "Now we've got it."

Los Angeles school board member Julie Korenstein said Friday that she will challenge incumbent City Council member Hal Bernson for his 12th District seat in the April 12 primary. Despite mounting troubles in the Los Angeles Unified School District, Korenstein, 47, said traffic congestion and other problems caused by overdevelopment in the north San Fernando Valley is prompting her bid.

Northridge businessman Walter Prince, who finished third in last month's primary election for Los Angeles City Councilman Hal Bernson's seat, said Monday he will back challenger Julie Korenstein against Bernson in the June 4 runoff. Prince, a wealthy janitorial-firm owner, said he has abandoned the idea of running as a write-in candidate in the runoff for the seat. That prospect had alarmed Korenstein campaign strategists, who worried that he would split the anti-Bernson vote.

Los Angeles City Councilman Hal Bernson, a Republican, has begun soliciting $1,000 contributions for a possible bid for lieutenant governor in 1994. But a political reform group has questioned whether he is sincerely raising money for a race two elections away or skirting a $500-per-donor limit on contributions to council members. Bernson, who has scheduled a fund-raiser Feb.

Hal Bernson sat back and did nothing to help the residents resist the county courthouse that has been approved at Winnetka and Plummer in Chatsworth. Now, when it is much too late, he comes out and appeals for funds to help contest it on the basis that he wants to help his constituents. This is the same political opportunist that almost single-handedly pushed through the huge Porter Ranch expansion, then hand-picked the commission to make an environmental impact report. Now he disputes its findings, which prove what we have all been saying from the outset--that smog and traffic gridlock will devastate the area.

Julie Korenstein's belief that she can force Hal Bernson into a June runoff election using the Porter Ranch Development issue illustrates her inability to correctly conceptualize the issues. Look into her record as a member of the Los Angeles school board. Because of her inabilities and weakness, the local junior high school and Granada Hills residents have been at a disadvantage from day one. At the same time she is bidding for the City Council seat, what is Korenstein doing about the current L.A. school financial crisis?

Julie Korenstein, who is mentioned as the front-runner against Hal Bernson and is the newest member on the school board, evidently believes she has made her impact there and is now ready for bigger and better things on the City Council. An excellent man who is running for councilman and hardly gets any publicity is Leonard Shapiro, publisher of the Los Angeles Observer. He is intelligent, knowledgeable and honest. He has spent years of his own time and money finding out the goings-on in city and county government.