Environment. In response to some criticism of his appointment to the South Coast Air Quality Management Board by Mayor Richard Riordan in January 1999, Bernson cited his defense of the Chatsworth Reservoir as a nature preserve and his authorship of the city's oak-tree preservation ordinance as evidence for his "solid" environmental credentials. A "Times" reporter wrote that "Bernson has lobbied for two decades" to preserve the reservoir that "he says should stand as a legacy of the San Fernando Valley's past for future generations."