Ernani Bernardi

Ernani Bernardi (October 29, 1911 – January 4, 2006) was a politician and big band musician. He served on the Los Angeles City Council from 1961 to 1993, representing the 7th district and becoming the second longest-serving council member in the history of the city. Prior to entering politics, Bernardi was the musical arranger for two of the mid-20th century's most popular dance melodies.

Early and personal life Bernardi was born on October 29, 1911 above a grocery store his family owned in Standard, Illinois, the son of musician Alfonso Bernardi and Nerina Biagini.

His parents were immigrants who came to America by way of Ellis Island, from a small town in the province of Modena in Emilia Romagna. His mother died in childbirth, and he was raised by his father, two grandmothers, an aunt and an uncle. When he was eleven, he was moved to the nearby town of Toluca, Illinois, where he later played varsity basketball.

Bernardi attended the University of Detroit, where he planned to study journalism and become a sportscaster. He was playing saxophone in a dance band at Detroit's Graystone Ballroom when he met Lucille May Sawasky of Port Arthur, Ontario.

They were married in 1933 and lived in Detroit briefly before moving to New York. The couple had four children, Joanne Marie Roots, Judith Ann, John Paul and (Ernani) James. She died in 1993. Ernani Bernardi remarried in November 2001 to Eve Troutman.

Bernardi was described at age 74 in 1985 as "crusty. . . short, bald and bespectacled," Even at age 86, he had "a booming voice and aggressive style."

Bernardi moved to California in 1940 to perform with Kay Kyser's Kollege of Musical Knowledge.

The ex-councilman continued playing the sax well into his eighties. In 2000 he was a regular at age 88 with his band booked, among other places, at a retro big band restaurant called Leon's Steak House in North Hollywood.

Los Angeles City Council (1961–1993) Elections

By 1957 a contractor in the San Fernando Valley, Bernardi ran for the Los Angeles City Council District 7 seat that year but finished third in the primary election, after James C. Corman, the eventual victor, and Kay Bogendorfer. When Corman was elected to Congress, Bernardi ran again in 1961 and was elected. and in 1986 it covered Panorama City, part of Sun Valley and Sylmar. For most of his early terms in office, Bernardi represented a "predominantly white working-class district in the mid-San Fernando Valley." His backers included many Valley tax opponents who were behind the successful passage of California's Proposition 13 anti-tax measure.

By the time Bernardi retired in 1993, the 7th District was 70 percent Latino and 19 percent African-American, encompassing one of Los Angeles's poorest areas. Registered voters were 39 percent Anglo, 30 percent Latino and 19 percent African-American.

His tenure of 32 years has been surpassed only by the 35 years of Council Member John Ferraro. and he was known as the City Council's "gadfly" because of his "pesky pursuit of lost causes," but in 1985 he was successful in forcing the City Council to put a tough campaign-reform law on the April ballot after he circulated petitions that would have required a vote on an even tougher law. The Los Angeles Times added:

Yet, there is a compassionate side to Bernardi. After visiting Tent City, a shelter for the homeless set up across from City Hall during the 1984 Christmas season, Bernardi returned to his office and began calling food stores and restaurants to solicit food donations. When a grocery store donated a box of uncooked beans, Bernardi opened up the City Hall kitchen and cooked the beans himself.

In 1988 Bernardi provided $70,000 from his $641,978-a-year office budget for police task forces to combat burglaries and drug trafficking in his district, and, even though he supported a lobbying group called FAIR, "devoted to using the harshest possible measures to reduce illegal immigration," he helped establish a hiring hall to get immigrant workers off the street.

Other activities In 1994 Bernardi sued the city of Los Angeles and its redevelopment agency, alleging that the agency violated the state's open meetings law when it was considering plans for Downtown Los Angeles. He helped finance the costs of his lawsuit by selling a videocassette of several big bands performing his favorite tunes. Eventually, appellate courts and the state supreme court ruled in favor of Bernardi in the main thrust of his claim, which effectively set a cap on the amount of money the agency could spend on the project.

In the 1990s he spoke against the idea of establishing neighborhood councils as part of a proposed city charter reform process.

In 1999, City Council President John Ferraro appointed Bernardi to a committee to oversee the spending of $744 million in bond funds for police and fire stations.