17 Newcomers Join Alhambra Commissions

Newcomers will fill more than a third of the 50 seats on city boards and commissions when a sweeping reorganization ordered by the City Council takes effect March 25.

The reorganization, which one deposed commissioner contends will “politicize” the panels, is expected to have the most impact on the city’s 10-member Planning Commission.

Councilman Michael Blanco said he believes that the Planning Commission may become firmer in protecting single-family home neighborhoods from encroachment by multifamily developments and commercial projects.

Ralph Gilliam, one of three incumbents dropped from the commission, said he expects the commission to become more resistant to growth. “I wouldn’t want to be a developer,” Gilliam said. “The (new) appointees are anti-development.”

Five Planners Retained

Councilmen retained five incumbents on the Planning Commission, shifted Vivian Mastrangelo to the commission from the Housing and Urban Development Advisory Committee and appointed four new members.

The council also revamped the Parks and Recreation Commission, the Youth Commission, the Housing and Urban Development Advisory Committee and the Board of Library Trustees and combined the Civil Service Commission with the Board of Appeals.

In all, the council retained 26 incumbents, changed the assignment of two others and added 17 newcomers, leaving five seats yet to be filled.

The appointments followed adoption of a new policy giving each council member authority to appoint one or two members to each board or commission, instead of having the mayor make appointments. The council cleared the way for the reorganization by declaring every commission and board seat vacant.

The council adopted the changes because of a Charter amendment approved by voters last year to rotate the position of mayor among council members, giving each a nine-month term. Mayor Talmage V. Burke said the rotation system would have given some mayors more appointments than others because of the schedule under which commission and board terms expire.

Burke said the council decided at the same time to make most appointments for one year only. The intent, Burke said, is to make appointees reflect the philosophies of the council members who appoint them.

“That’s a polite way of saying they want to politicize the commissions,” said Alfred Encinas, one of the planning commissioners who was not reappointed. Encinas said the Planning Commission “should be an independent body.”

Jim Willson, who was dropped from the Civil Service Commission, said he would not have accepted reappointment even if it had been offered. “I don’t want to be a rubber stamp,” he said.

Willson, who has argued that the City Council has violated the city Charter in reducing the duties of the Civil Service Commission, is one of a number of commissioners who have complained about the council’s unwillingness to meet with them.

Burke said he agrees that the council has had a “communications problem,” particularly with the Planning Commission, and said that the council has resolved to meet with each of the boards and commissions soon.

Series of Reversals

Burke noted that in one recent stretch the council overruled the Planning Commission on eight of 10 appeals. Such reversals are bound to create misunderstandings, Burke said. What planning commissioners may not perceive, he said, is that the council often receives additional information that was not available to the commission and must be more sensitive to politics when making decisions.

A new general plan is now being developed that Burke said should help bring the council and commission into harmony.

But Gilliam, the former planning commissioner, said the way the council has handled the initial work on the revised general plan illustrates the “communications problem.” The council has been giving direction to consultants preparing the plan for months, but has not yet talked to the Planning Commission about it, he complained.

Planning commissioners who were reappointed are William Tomanovich, Rod Wright, Fred Burkardt, Dalia Nunez and Ronald Dana. In addition to Mastrangelo, who was shifted to the commission from another board, the council appointed newcomers Ted Waters, Gloria Santillan, Kirk McKay and former councilman Sherm Hall.

Appointees Named

Other appointments announced by council members were:

Parks and Recreation Commission: Rick Emmett, Mark Paulson, Frank Hernandez, Dave Heslington and Linda Hacker, all incumbents, and George Olson, Gerald Munoz, Maria Murray, Bob Hooper and Reed E. Nilsen.

Housing and Urban Development Advisory Committee: John Gillis, Pearl Rutter and Bob Suzuki, all incumbents, and Helen Wysong, John Trapani, Michael Lui, Al Fuentes and Marco Maimone.

Youth Commission: Stephen Holt, Cathay Liu, Tina M. Komatz, Esther Morel, Mini L. Lai and Wendy Lewis, all incumbents, and Martha Campana.

Civil Service and Board of Appeals: Vince Mancino, James Voors, Robert Freeborn and Norman Gouailharou, all incumbents, and Frances Hines.

Board of Library Trustees: Modest Schwartz, Madeleine Doerning and Lois Johnson, all incumbents, and Alicia Hernandez and Miriam Freeborn.