Local Elections : Most Incumbents Running in April Elections in 23 Cities

Fifty-three incumbents are seeking reelection April 8 when voters in 23 San Gabriel Valley cities select city council members.

A total of 126 candidates are vying for 63 four-year terms. Only 10 incumbents decided not to run again, most saying they thought they had served long enough and that new blood was needed in city government.

Some of the cities will select mayors, but most will vote only for council positions.

In Baldwin Park and Bradbury there will be no election because the incumbents are unopposed. Council elections are not scheduled in April in Alhambra, Pasadena and Pomona.

Voters in Azusa will cast advisory ballots on whether a waste-to-energy plant should be built there. La Verne will decide whether the city clerk and city treasurer should be appointed rather than elected. La Verne residents also will cast advisory ballots on whether fireworks sales should be allowed to continue there.

Here are the candidates and the cities in which they are competing:

ARCADIA

Three council seats are open and only one incumbent, Dennis Lojeski, is seeking reelection. Under terms of the City Charter, Councilman Don Pellegrino cannot seek a third term and Councilman David Hannah has chosen not to run for reelection.

Hannah, 62, has served four years on the council and before that was a member of the board of trustees of Pasadena City College for four years.

“I will still be active in the community,” he said, “but I won’t be tied down as much as I would holding an elective office. I will take a year or two off and then run for something else. I feel comfortable about not running because there are several very qualified candidates.”

In addition to Lojeski, the candidates are Lewis H. May, a physician who formerly served on the Arcadia Unified School District board; James Neumeister, a retired music teacher; Charles Chivetta Sr., an urban planning consultant; William T. Gahr, a retired controller; Roger Chandler, a lieutenant in the county Sheriff’s Department; John D. Bon Eske, a retired planner; Robert C. Harbicht, president of Harbicht Research Co. and a member of the Arcadia Planning Commission; Andrew L. Bard, an investment banker, and William Carpenter, a financial planner.

AZUSA

The mayor’s post and two council seats must be filled, and Mayor Eugene Moses is being challenged by Lucio D. Cruz, a retired government worker who serves on the City Council. Cruz, whose council term expires in 1986, will retain his seat if Moses defeats him.

In the council race, incumbents Armando L. Camarena, a data processing consultant, and Bruce G. Latta, assistant manager of the Riverside County National Date Festival, are being challenged by Richard M. Widman, a designer; Mike Falletta, a utility employee; Harry L. Stemrich, a businessman; Joseph Beaulieu, a retired building contractor, and Jennie B. Avila, a director of social services for the American Red Cross.

Voters will also be asked in an advisory ballot measure: Shall a waste-to-energy plant be allowed in the city?

Last month the City Council voted against a conditional-use permit for a proposed $160-million trash-to-energy plant.

BALDWIN PARK

There will be no council election because the three incumbents who filed for reelection have no opposition. They are Mayor Jack White and Councilmen Bobbie W. Izell and Robert H. McNeill.

City Clerk Linda Gair said the city will save $8,000 by not having the April election.

BRADBURY

There will not be an election because incumbents Jeff Alkana and Beatrice La Pisto-Kirtley are unopposed. The city will save about $3,000 by canceling the election.

CLAREMONT

Three council positions are open but only one incumbent, attorney Terry Fitzgerald, is running.

Mayor Enid Douglas, elected as a councilwoman and then appointed by the council as mayor, said that eight years on the council is enough and that, although she still enjoys her duties, it is time for others to take part in city government. Incumbent Gordon Curtis, 56, a real estate broker, also said that four years on the council was enough and that it was time to step aside and give someone else a turn. Both he and Douglas, 59, a history professor at Claremont Graduate School, say they want to devote more time to their professions.

The challengers are Alex Hughes, a Claremont school district administrator; Nick Presecan, a civil engineer with a private firm; Diann Ring, a member of the city Planning Commission; Jess Swick, an insurance agent, and Wei Liang (Bill) Yu, a pediatrician.

COVINA

Incumbents Robert G. Low and Henry M. Morgan are facing challenges from Nathalie Leone, a retired businesswoman, and Steven R. Romines, business executive. Two seats are open.

DUARTE

Three incumbents are running for reelection to the three open seats. Incumbents John Van Doren, Carlyle Falkenborg and J. A. Montgomery are being challenged by John Hitt, a certified financial planner, and Terry Michaelis, a certified public accountant.

EL MONTE

Two candidates are seeking the separately elected mayor’s office. Mayor Don McMillen, who is running for a second two-year term, is being challenged by Jim Marin, a high school counselor who was ousted from the El Monte City School Board last November.

Two incumbents and two other candidates are vying for two terms on the City Council. Councilman Henry Velasco is running for a third term and Councilman Ernest Gutierrez is seeking his second.

Jeff Marrone, a real estate dealer who has been active in civic affairs, is seeking his first elective office. Doris Frank, who owns a refuse company, ran unsuccessfully for the council in 1984.

GLENDORA

Three council seats must be filled. Incumbent Guy A. Williams Jr., a land use consultant and developer, is not seeking a third term. Williams, who served eight years on the council and four years on the Planning Commission, said, “Twelve years of public service is enough, and it’s healthy for government to have a change.”

Candidates for the three seats include incumbents Len Martyns and Lois Shade. Others are Eugene Osko, attorney; Robert Kuhn, businessman, and Wally Battler, retired insurance underwriter.

CITY OF INDUSTRY

For only the third time in the city’s 29-year history, City Council incumbents face a challenge.

There are three seats open in the election in which incumbents John P. Ferrero, Manuel Garcia and Patrick Perez are being challenged by Lydia A. Nash, a schoolteacher.

The chief issues appear to be the lack of competitive bidding for important contracts and allegations by Nash that the city has prevented her and some of her neighbors from developing valuable property they own.

IRWINDALE

Three council seats are open. Candidates include two incumbents and the city clerk/treasurer, Margaret Barbosa, who said she is seeking “a change, some new experience.”

Incumbent Michael Miranda has decided not to run after 12 years on the council, saying that he thinks “most of my objectives have been accomplished.” Miranda, administrator of the division of biology at Caltech, cited industrial and commercial development and the city’s plans for a restaurant and shopping center as two of the council’s accomplishments.

Incumbents Pat Miranda and Joe Breceda are being challenged by Barbosa; Robert Diaz, an elementary school teacher; Jacquelin Breceda, a savings application specialist; Gason Hernandez, an operations manager; Salvador (Sal) Hernandez, a businessman; Mauro Z. Martinez, a real estate broker, and Richard L. Acosta, a shipping clerk.

LA VERNE

Two council seats and the mayor’s post must be filled, and voters will also decide two ballot issues. Mayor Jon Blickenstaff is unopposed. Councilmen Robert Rodriguez and Patrick Gatti are being challenged by George Caswell, a retired Claremont city administrator.

In addition, the city is asking voters to advise it on whether fireworks sales should be continued, a response to pressure from groups that oppose fireworks. The vote, however, will not be binding.

The second ballot issue, whether to appoint the city clerk and city treasurer instead of electing them, as is done now, will be decided by a majority vote.

LA PUENTE

Three incumbents and two challengers are running for three seats.

Two of the incumbents, Francis Palacio and Max Ragland, are five-term councilmen. The third, Louis Guzman, is a two-term councilman who has served as mayor for the past year.

They are being challenged by Robert A. Stotelmeyer, a retired sheriff’s deputy, and Lou Perez, a sales engineer. Stotelmeyer has made three unsuccessful attempts at winning a council seat; four years ago, he lost by 50 votes. Perez is making his first run for public office.

Both challengers agreed that the city, which has a budget surplus of $14 million, is well administered. But they said that because two of the incumbents had served for 20 years, it was time for “new blood and new ideas.”

MONROVIA

A mayor and two councilmen will be elected. Mayor Paul Stuart, a retired businessman and teacher, is opposed by Councilwoman Mary Wilcox, a restaurant manager whose term does not expire until 1988. If she wins, her council seat will be filled either by appointment or special election. If Stuart wins, Wilcox will remain on the council.

In the City Council race, incumbents Robert Bartlett and John Nobrega are opposed by Joe Garcia, a police officer; Patrick Hauk, a restaurant worker, and Ed Zoolalian, a manufacturing manager who has previously served on the council.

MONTEREY PARK

Frank J. Arcuri and Barry L. Hatch, who created controversy in Monterey Park last year with a proposal to declare English the city’s official language, are among four challengers who have filed to run against three incumbents.

Mayor Rudy Peralta and council members Lily Chen and David R. Almada filed for reelection. All denounced the English language initiative last year as racially divisive and refused to vote to adopt it or put it on the ballot.

But, although the English-language proposal generated a great deal of controversy, most Monterey Park elections in recent years have focused on the city’s development, which could become the key issue again. Most of the challengers filed campaign statements criticizing the city’s rapid growth.

Other candidates for the three council seats are Chris Houseman, a law student/researcher; Pat Reichenberger, a businesswoman; Arcuri, a photographer, sculptor and teacher, and Hatch, an educator.

ROSEMEAD

Two incumbents are being challenged for two council seats.

Gary Taylor is seeking a fourth term and Mayor Louis Tury Jr. is after a third. The challenger is Gilbert Gonzales, an auto body repairman who lost in two previous attempts to win a council seat.

The small number of candidates is unusual, according to City Clerk Ellen Goochian, because 8 to 10 candidates file in a typical election. Gonzales waited until 10 minutes before the deadline to file, she said.

SAN DIMAS

Mayor Don Haefer is running unopposed. Council members Nick Martocchio, a data security specialist, and Maria Tortorelli, an attorney, are being challenged by businessman Sandy McHenry.

SAN GABRIEL

Council members Janis Cohen and Sabino Cici are challenged by James Castaneda, an engineer. Two seats are at stake.

SAN MARINO

Two seats are being vacated on the City Council. Lynn Reitnour, who has served for 10 years, and Howard Privett, who is completing a four-year term, said they want to make way for other residents to volunteer for public service.

Candidates for their seats are Paul Crowley, an engineer; Suzanne Crowell, homemaker; Philip Reynolds Heckendorn, attorney and certified public accountant, and Edwards Huntington Metcalf.

Crowley and Crowell last year headed a citizens campaign to pass a special tax that would have raised funds for San Marino Unified School District. The November ballot measure failed but will be put before voters again next June.

SIERRA MADRE

Six people are vying for three seats on the council. Incumbents Thomas Edwards, who has served four four-year terms, and Lisa Fowler, who is finishing her first term, are seeking reelection. They are opposed by Robert Bruce Crow, an engineer with Jet Propulsion Laboratory; Elaine Rudolph, president of a financial consultant placement company; Frank Vandongen, owner of a fish market, and Clem Bartolai, administrative manager of a Monrovia-based engineering firm.

Mayor Charles Corp has decided not to run again for the council because he wants to devote more time to personal affairs. The new council will choose one of its members to fill the mayor’s post.

SOUTH EL MONTE

The City Council’s handling of an ordinance requiring improvements to 237 deteriorating metal industrial buildings appears likely to be the hottest topic of debate.

Two council seats and the mayor’s post are at stake.

Mayor John Gonzales is running for another two-year term and has vowed to make metal buildings an issue. Gonzales was in the minority in voting for a tougher ordinance than the one the council appears certain to pass.

Councilman Albert Perez is challenging Gonzales for the mayor’s seat. Perez, who will remain on the council if he loses in his bid for the mayor’s post, favored the more lenient metal-building measure.

Incumbents Greg Meis and Ignacio (Slim) Gracia are running for reelection.

Both joined the council in 1980 when they were appointed to vacancies. Gracia sided with the majority on the metal building issue, while Meis joined Gonzales in dissent.

Former Mayor Jim Kelly is trying to make a comeback. Kelly, now a planning commissioner, served as mayor from 1980 to 1984. Also running is Homer Wilson, a member of the Human Services Commission.

SOUTH PASADENA

The fate of the longtime power structure is on the line.

The outcome could shape City Hall politics for years because the remaining representatives of the existing power structure have come to the end of their terms.

Mayor Samuel G. Knowles is going for his third four-year term and Councilman David Margrave is running for his second term. But two-term Councilman Ted Shaw has kept his long-standing promise not to run for a third term.

The list of challengers includes veteran candidates William A. Mann, an engineer; Dr. Gail V. Anderson, an administrator at County-USC Medical Center, and Jon A. Fasana, chief of the Los Angeles City Paramedics. Mann and Fasana have in the past been viewed as anti-Establishment outsiders trying to break the hold on the council by Knowles, Shaw, Margrave and former council members Mike Montgomery and AlvaLee Arnold.

Also running are political newcomers Christlena Lawton, a bank manager; Jay Don Laurence, a personnel director; James S. Woollacott, a retired business executive; James C. Hodge Jr., a dentist, and Evelyn Fierro Peterson, a television news writer.

TEMPLE CITY

Three seats are at stake and all incumbents are seeking reelection. Mary Lou Swain is after a second four-year term and Tom Atkins and Ken Gillanders are running for third terms.

The only challenger is James Mike Slemmon, a framing contractor.

WALNUT

Two incumbents and one challenger are vying for two council seats.

Incumbent Charles D. Richardson, a utility executive, was elected to the council in 1982 and has served as mayor for the past year. Drexel L. Smith, the director of a research laboratory and a former city Planning Commission member, also is seeking his second term.

Ray T. Watson, a sheriff’s deputy for 28 years, is challenging the incumbents in a race in which no major issues have surfaced. Watson ran for a council seat in 1984 and lost by 133 votes.

WEST COVINA

There are two seats open. Incumbents Robert Bacon and Chester Shearer are seeking reelection.

There is only one challenger, Tom Walsh, a general manager with a communications firm. The chief issue promises to be BKK and whether the city has moved fast and aggressively enough to shut down the landfill.