A shift on rights panel

WASHINGTON -- Over the past three years, Mary Frances Berry and Cruz Reynoso presided over US Civil Rights Commission meetings that were so frigid that members would sometimes snap at one another or sit back and stare coldly.

But after Berry, the liberal chairman, who is black, and Reynoso, the liberal vice chairman, who is Latino, stepped down this week, the composition of the commission changed. President Bush appointed a black Republican, Gerald A. Reynolds, to replace Berry as chairman, and another black Republican, Ashley L. Taylor, to replace Reynoso as a member. Abigail Thernstrom, an independent who is conservative and white, became the new vice chairman.

Thus the commission went from a 5 to 3 liberal majority to a 6 to 2 conservative majority.

"It is a new day at the commission, no doubt about it," said Peter N. Kirsanow, a black conservative commissioner. "Mary was there for 25 years. She's been there for half the commission's life."

Liberals are wondering how conservatives, some of whom have said that the commission has lost its relevance and many of whom oppose programs such as affirmative action, will fulfill the commission's role as the conscience of the federal government, as it has been called.

"The issue isn't whether they are Democrat or Republican. It's whether they will continue to advance the mission of civil rights," said Hilary Shelton, director of the NAACP's Washington bureau. "The commission came out of the civil rights movement, and its mission was to advance ways of fully integrating the diversity of American citizens."

Reynolds said that work is a concern, but the first order of business will be fiscal: "One of the first things we're going to do is have an audit," he said.

"There have been allegations of mismanagement by" the Government Accountability Office, said Reynolds, a Brooklyn native who was assistant secretary for civil rights at the Education Department under Bush. "We want to operate the commission in a fashion that brings honor to the commission and individuals who work at the commission."

In October of last year, the GAO said the commission flouted federal guidelines while managing a $9 million budget, particularly when awarding contracts.

Staff director Les Jin, who took issue with the report, was released this week. He will probably be replaced by Kenneth L. Marcus, who worked with Reynolds at the Education Department, several commission officials said.