CHARTER PANELS SPLIT ON COUNCIL SIZE; COMMITTEE DELAYS DECISION ON EXPANSION PLAN.

Byline: Rick Orlov Daily News Staff Writer

The effort to develop a single Los Angeles charter reform proposal stalled Thursday over what plan for an expanded City Council should be presented to voters next year.

Members of a joint committee of appointed and elected charter reform panels found themselves locked in a stalemate after nearly an hour of debate. The joint committee put off the issue until next week so they can try to build a consensus.

On Wednesday, the chairmen of the panels suggested asking voters to choose between a plan to keep the council at 15 members and another to increase the council to 23 members.

``I wish I could say there was differential calculus involved in this, but it was a compromise between the elected commission's proposal to have a 25-member council and the appointed's proposal for 21,'' said Erwin Chemerinsky, chairman of the elected commission. ``It just seemed an obvious compromise.''

Joe Mandel of the appointed Charter Reform Commission argued, however, that the new charter should contain the higher number.

``I think it's a grave mistake to keep the status quo of 15 members in the charter proposal,'' Mandel said.

Representatives of the two panels fought to defend their own recommendations.

``We have to be careful that we do not lose our moral principles at the expense of expediency,'' Mandel said.

Elected Charter Reform Commission commissioners Bennet Keyser and Bill Weinberger said reducing its recommendation of 25 would have serious impacts on representation, particularly in minority communities.

Attorney Richard Fajardo, who has been working with the Los Angeles Business Advisors, which originally wanted 35 council districts, argued the 25-district proposal would make it easier to have more minorities on the City Council and better overall representation.

Fajardo said the San Fernando Valley could go from the four council districts it now has to eight or nine. African-American representation could grow from three districts to four and the plan could create possibly six Latino districts and an Asian-American district.

LABA President Sam Bell said his group also would support an expansion to 25 council members.

``We believe this is the single most essential point of charter reform,'' Bell said, citing the 240,000 people each City Council member now represents. Going to 25 council members would leave each member representing some 160,000 people.

``What is important about this is it is something we will have to live with, perhaps for the next 50 years.''

The conference committee has set a loose deadline of early January to try to reach an agreement to submit a package to the two commissions to try to come up with one charter reform plan to submit to voters.