DIALOGUE HELD ON BIAS RULES : AFFIRMATIVE ACTION, INITIATIVE DISCUSSED.

Byline: Rick Orlov Daily News Staff Writer

As residents throughout Los Angeles met Friday to have a day of dialogue about affirmative action, one of the leaders of the campaign for the California Civil Rights Initiative said he welcomed the debate.

``As long as this is done without a hidden agenda, I have no problem with that,'' said Ward Connerly, the University of California regent heading the CCRI campaign.

``My concern is with the Los Angeles City Council being part of this when they went on record in opposition to this before it was even being circulated as an initiative.''

City Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas, who organized the discussion groups at 29 sites around the city, said the goal of the sessions was to discuss human relations and how the initiative would affect that.

The African-American councilman has opposed the initiative on the grounds that it would eliminate important opportunities for women and minorities in jobs and education.

``We happen to think the CCRI would eviscerate city policy with respect to equal opportunity and affirmative action,'' Ridley-Thomas said. ``But we don't want to take this position and make things more tense than they already are. This is an effort to get people to express different points of views.''

Connerly, in a meeting with political reporters in Los Angeles, said the debate over the issue on the Nov. 5 ballot is important to deal with the ``raw nerve'' that is touched whenever racial matters are discussed.

``We have to get beyond the racial stereotypes that because you're black, you're disadvantaged and need help,'' Connerly said. ``We have to start giving black people the respect to which we're entitled. We've got to stop the presumption that all blacks are disadvantaged and that if a black is in a responsible position, it is because a white person helped them.''

Connerly, who is African-American, said he has taken a lot of heat for his role with the CCRI campaign, but believes the changes contained in the initiative - it would eliminate all state government affirmative action programs - are needed.

``Thirty years ago, something like (affirmative action) might have been needed,'' Connerly said. ``But as I look around the state, I see where things have changed. Particularly in California. We have two U.S. senators and both are women. Here, in Los Angeles, you had a black mayor for 20 years. Up and down the state, there are blacks, Chicanos, women in important positions of power.''

Connerly, a Sacramento developer, is the regent who became the center of protests over his pushing a plan to eliminate all racial, ethnic and gender preferences for admission to the University of California system.