SAN GABRIEL VALLEY ELECTIONS : Monterey Park : Ins and Outs See 2 Different Cities

Three incumbents seeking reelection to the City Council describe their city as a progressive community with sleek new office buildings in a $200-million Corporate Center, superb Chinese restaurants, a respected Police Department and quiet neighborhoods where Asians, Anglos and Latinos live together in harmony.

However, their four opponents see a much different city, one with crowded streets, a proliferation of signs, ugly condominiums and cluttered little shopping centers.

Each side claims that the other is out of touch with reality. Voters will decide the issue by electing three council members on April 8.

The incumbents “think that we’ve had some sort of renaissance--all these rinky-dink little mini-malls,” said challenger Chris Houseman, his voice rising in exasperation. As he campaigns door-to-door, Houseman said, he finds residents upset about overdevelopment, traffic congestion and the destruction of neighborhoods.

‘Everybody Feels the Same’

“Practically everybody I meet feels the same way I do,” he said.

But Councilwoman Lily Chen said she has been walking in neighborhoods, too, and while traffic congestion and other problems cause concern, most people like the direction in which the city is going. Besides, she said, “It’s easy to criticize and talk about problems, but to find solutions is difficult.”

Chen, Mayor Rudy Peralta and Councilman David R. Almada are seeking reelection. All won office for the first time four years ago when they drew strong support from police officers who were angered by the city’s handling of salary negotiations.

They also may have benefited in 1982 from the last-minute distribution of a four-page “newspaper” that branded their opponents as the “pro-poker slate.” Chen and Peralta have denounced the publication as a “hit piece” and said they do not know who was responsible for it. Almada said he was not responsible, but thought it raised a legitimate issue because there had been some council discussion of raising revenue by permitting a poker parlor. However, none of the candidates advocated poker parlors during the election campaign and the idea was dropped long before the election.

Chen recently asked other candidates to sign a fair political campaign pledge, but encountered resistance from several candidates who called it a campaign ploy. Almada said he already had signed such a pledge and would file it with the city clerk, but had no intention of complying with Chen’s request that he sign the pledge and return it to her.

The council members are campaigning separately, but their opponents are attacking them as a group. Two opponents, Barry L. Hatch, a teacher, and Pat Reichenberger, a businesswoman, sometimes walk neighborhoods together and distribute each other’s flyers, but are not formally running as a team. The other challengers are Frank J. Arcuri, a photographer whose raucous campaign to establish English as the city’s official language enlivened City Council meetings for months, and Houseman, a law student.

Upset by Tone

Chen said she is upset by the tone of the campaign. She cited cartoons that Arcuri has been handing out that vilify the council in general and herself in particular. She said she is portrayed as “a foreigner invading the city,” and that such caricatures disparage all Asians. The artist who has been drawing the cartoons for Arcuri, who asked not to be identified for fear of reprisals, was born in China. He said his cartoons are not an attack on Asians in general but only on Chen and those developers who would turn Monterey Park into “Little Taipei.” In addition to cartoons, Arcuri has distributed a mailer that calls Chen “an incompetent fraud,” adding:

“She encourages Chinese people to think that American leaders will not represent their interests and that they should elect her solely because she is Chinese herself. She promotes the racial division of our city because it is to her political advantage.”

Chen denied that she is exploiting race and said Arcuri and others create racial division by attributing Monterey Park’s problems to Asian immigrants. It is unfair and divisive to blame one group for the city’s ills, she said.

Immigration has drastically changed the city’s composition since the 1970 census when less than 10% of the population was Asian. The city currently estimates that 40% of its population is Asian, 37% Latino and 22% Anglo. Monterey Park has more than 58,000 residents and 22,312 registered voters.

Born in China

Chen, who was born in China but has lived in Monterey Park for 20 years, is the only candidate of Asian descent. She says other Asians stayed out of the race to avoid taking votes from her.

Some of her campaign literature is printed in Chinese and she has made a special effort to register Asian voters, but Chen said she does not regard herself as the council’s “Asian representative.”

Chen is the only candidate endorsed by both the city police and fire associations. The Monterey Park Police Officers Assn., which represents nearly all of the city’s 72 sworn officers, is also backing Peralta and Almada, while the Monterey Park Firefighter’s Assn., which represents the city ‘s approximately 40 firefighters, has endorsed Hatch and Houseman.

Sgt. Chris Keller, who heads the police association, said its members were angered four years ago when the city reduced medical benefits that policemen thought they had been promised in lieu of pay increases. The new council, elected with police support, restored the medical benefits.

Says Police Fared Better

Dave Riser, secretary of the firefighters association, said the Police Department has fared far better than the Fire Department under the current council. Therefore, he said, firefighters have decided to actively support candidates for the first time, walking precincts, posting signs and distributing flyers.

Riser said the association endorsed candidates who have promised to consider merging the city Fire Department into the county, or, failing that, consider strengthening the fire service by adding paramedics. The city contracts with an ambulance company for paramedics.

The involvement of city employees in the municipal election makes some candidates uneasy. Reichenberger said a campaign obligation to employees could inhibit a council member from acting in the city’s best interests. Hatch said he has qualms about accepting employee support, but that his campaign needs the help. Peralta said he sees nothing wrong with taking donations and help from policemen and is proud to bill himself as a “law-and-order candidate.” Chen said she welcomes employee endorsements, but will not accept campaign donations from them. Keller and Riser said their groups will donate $500 to each of the other candidates they endorse and do volunteer work.

Door-to-Door

Nearly all of the candidates say they are campaigning door-to-door. The incumbents have campaign offices staffed with workers, mostly volunteers. The challengers are working out of homes and garages.

The incumbents stress their achievements over the past four years. The challengers say developers have been given a free hand, to the city’s detriment.

Almada, 40, a junior high school principal who has a doctorate in education from Claremont Graduate School, said the city has enjoyed four years of labor peace, has reduced burglaries by strengthening the Neighborhood Watch Program, and has raised development standards through an Architectural Review Board created by the council. Almada said that he has voted against some commercial projects in which stores were so small they were “little chicken coops,” and has fought to upgrade standards. But, he said, he believes in economic growth. “One of our prime jobs,” he said, “is to secure a healthy economy.”

Chen, 49, is director of public affairs of the county’s Children’s Services Department. She lists as major accomplishments a leadership role in closing the Operating Industries dump, opposition to malathion spraying and successful efforts to obtain funding for underground utilities and for school projects. Her agenda for the next four years includes upgrading the Fire Department and revitalizing business areas.

Mayor’s Office Rotates

Peralta, 59, is serving as mayor under a system that rotates the office among council members every nine months. He has lived in Monterey Park for more than 25 years and is a manager in the production control center of a food and beverage packaging company.

Observers say he lacks the flamboyance of Chen or Almada. “I haven’t been a headline-grabber,” he said. “I’m low-key, but I do my homework and I get things done.” He has led a successful campaign to raise $1 million for the Monterey Park Girls and Boys Club.

Arcuri, 45, a self-employed photographer and sculptor who has taught art, has become well known in Monterey Park and neighboring cities for his campaign to have English declared the official language. Arcuri has charged that American businesses are being driven out of Monterey Park by foreign speculators and developers who would remake the city into a duplicate of Hong Kong. He said all citizens should think of themselves as Americans first, not members of an ethnic group. Council members have accused him of encouraging racism, but he said that his efforts to encourage the use of English are intended to bring the community together, not divide it.

3,000-Plus Signed Petition

Hatch, 49, who teaches in Bell Gardens, co-sponsored with Arcuri a petition campaign last year to establish English as the city’s official language. The initiative petition failed to qualify for the ballot for technical reasons, but was signed by more than 3,000 people. Hatch has since distanced himself from Arcuri but remains committed to the designation of English as the official language. He said his campaign is stressing the need for leadership and for measures to deal with traffic congestion and improved development. Hatch was born in Monterey Park, but lived for several years in Hong Kong and speaks Cantonese.

Houseman, who also was born in Monterey Park, is the youngest of the candidates at 27, but already has political experience. He started walking precincts in political campaigns when he was 9 years old and was an elected delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1980. He has accused the council of allowing “reckless development” while allowing prime commercial areas to deteriorate. “We have an inept City Council with no vision or creativity,” he said.

Reichenberger, 40, is another longtime resident of the city. She said overdevelopment has strained city facilities and services, resulting in low water pressure, overloaded sewers and a Fire Department that lacks manpower and equipment. She said the city needs to tighten development standards, enforce its own regulations and restore pride in its appearance.

She majored in psychology at UCLA and works as a sales representative. She has been active in a host of community organizations, such as the the auxiliary board of MERCI (Mentally and Educationally Retarded Citizens) and the Woman’s Club Juniors.