Bernson's letter to editor is one for all to hear at lunch. (Politics).

A roast and farewell luncheon for outgoing City Councilman Hal Bernson, who is stepping down after 24 years in office in July, turned quasi-ugly last week following a flap over who paid for the lunch and their ties to a controversial landfill in Granada Hills.

The back-story, in case you missed it, goes like this. The Valley Industry and Commerce Association hosted the luncheon for Bernson at the Porter Valley Country Club, which was sponsored by, among others, BFI Inc., operators of the Sunshine Canyon Landfill, which has permits pending for reopening, and the company's public relations firm, the MWW Group.

Opponents of the reopening of the landfill, and there are many, including Bernson himself, viewed his planned attendance at the luncheon as a brazen about -face on an issue he spent much of his time on in office.

The most public criticism came from the editorial pages of the Daily News three days prior to the event, in which Bernson was blasted for even considering going (at that point he was undecided), as was VICA, for having lined up the support of an "organization hostile to the concerns of so many Valley residents."

Bernson was accused of being "shallow" and the paper labeled the event as a "trashy" way for him to wind up his time in office.

Bernson did go, and he came fully armed with a copy of a two-page letter he fired off to the editors of the Daily News in response to the editorial, which he read in full for the luncheon attendees, including Daily News reporter James Nash.

Bernson revealed an apparently long history of bad blood between him and the Daily News, suggesting in his letter that the editors would probably do with it what they've done with all of his letters to the paper: "throw it in a drawer and forget about it."

Bernson said, half jokingly, that he thought perhaps BFI got behind the lunch because they were simply anxious to get rid of him. But he also said it was his belief that the Daily News stooped to an all-time low in printing the editorial (a separate news story on the potential "conflict of interest" also ran in the same issue), accusing the paper of trading journalistic integrity for sensationalism.

But revenge is sweet, especially when it's done in full view of a TV news crew. Fox TV sent a cameraman out to shoot footage of Bernson's goodbye lunch. So When Bernson got to the podium, the station got a lot more than it bargained for.

Nash, the Daily News reporter, said he intended to write the full story for the next day's paper.

"We'll see how much they take out of it," he said.

Staff Reporter Jacqueline Fox can be reached at [phone] or by e-mail at [e-mail]