Edelman Takes Jobs With RAND, Mediation Firm : Government: Veteran supervisor retires next month. He will serve as senior fellow at Santa Monica institute and negotiator with Orange County service.

Supervisor Ed Edelman announced Wednesday that he will split his time between a RAND post and professional negotiating when he retires from the Board of Supervisors early next month.

Edelman, who will end a five-term, 20-year stint on the board Dec. 2, said at a news conference he had considered several options, including practicing law, but settled on public policy and arbitration.

“I have no intention of retiring from public life,” said Edelman, 64. “At RAND, I will be able to use their great resources to reach out to the community . . . and (because) I’ve enjoyed being on the board as a conciliator and mediator, I’m glad I will be able to continue that interest.”

Edelman, who has a campaign chest of more than $900,000, said he will use that money to start a foundation for music and performing arts in the county, although he was unsure when it would begin.

At RAND, Edelman will serve as a senior fellow and assist graduate students at the Santa Monica-based public policy institute.

RAND’s president and CEO, James A. Thompson, said Edelman’s 29-year career as an elected official would be especially valuable for students at RAND’s Graduate School of Public Policy.

“Our students come back and tell us, ‘You gave us a great education, but you forgot to tell us one thing, that the world out there is so much more complicated and political than we thought,’ ” Thompson said. “We are looking for Ed to help us with that.”

As a negotiator with Judicial Arbitration & Mediation Services/Endispute based in Orange, Edelman will join a panel of other mediators--most of them retired judges--who attempt to resolve civil disputes before they reach the courts.

Edelman will focus on environmental, employment and government issues with the service, which is the largest of its kind in the United States.

As a supervisor, Edelman helped resolve several conflicts with labor unions, including a threatened county nurse’s walkout in 1990 and the recent Metropolitan Transportation Authority strike. He is also credited with helping keep the peace between some of his more contentious colleagues on the board.

Edelman announced his retirement last December, less than a year before he would have faced reelection for a sixth term. The announcement came as a surprise to many on his staff, but Edelman said he decided to retire so he could pursue other interests.

Before serving two decades as a supervisor, Edelman was a Los Angeles city councilman for nine years.

City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, elected to the board in June, will fill Edelman’s 3rd District seat starting Dec. 5.

Edelman is the third long-serving supervisor to retire since 1991, following Pete Schabarum and Kenneth Hahn. Supervisor Deane Dana, who was elected in 1980, announced earlier this month that he will retire when his term ends in two years.