California Elections : Tanner, Renewal Plan In; Parking Ban Loses

In key local elections Tuesday, a proposed ban on overnight parking was defeated in Monrovia, a controversial redevelopment project was approved in Baldwin Park and South Pasadena residents made it clear they want to continue fighting expansion of the Long Beach Freeway.

San Gabriel Valley voters also had their say on other local issues and selected a judge and several school board members.

All of the area incumbents in Congress and the state Senate and Assembly won reelection.

Tanner Triumphant

In the only close race, Assemblywoman Sally Tanner (D-El Monte) defeated Republican challenger Henry J. Velasco by 27,070 to 22,881 in the 60th Assembly District. Libertarian David Argall got 806 votes. There are 101,451 registered voters in the district.

Velasco spent about $200,000, most of it contributed by Assembly GOP leaders. Tanner was the only San Gabriel Valley legislator on a list of 15 Democratic targets compiled by Assembly Republican leader Pat Nolan (R-Glendale).

After her victory, Tanner, who said she spent about $70,000 on her campaign for a sixth term, said Nolan’s support of Velasco was an attempt to consolidate his influence in Sacramento by gaining victory in a solidly Democratic district.

The 60th district is composed of Baldwin Park, the City of Industry, El Monte, La Puente, Rosemead and part of West Covina.

In other San Gabriel Valley elections:

Monrovia

The issue of overnight parking in Monrovia was tossed back to the City Council when voters narrowly defeated a measure that would have outlawed parking on city streets during early morning hours.

Residents rejected the measure, Proposition X, by a vote of 4,342 to 4,083.

However, they voted overwhelmingly in favor of Proposition Y, an advisory ballot measure that asked whether parking should be restricted to alternate sides of the streets one day a week to facilitate street cleaning if Proposition X was defeated.

Proposition Y was approved 5,092 to 2,981. There are 15,076 registered voters in the city. The alternate-side parking restriction is expected to be discussed by the council when it meets on Nov. 18.

‘People Have Spoken’

“The people have spoken,” said Wanda Wardwell, who led the fight against Proposition X.

“I’m very disappointed, but not terribly surprised,” said Pat Myers, a spokesman for Citizens for Cleaner, Safer Streets, which favored the ban.

She said residents who voted against the restriction put “personal inconvenience” over what is best for the community.

“Now we have the largest unmoving parking lot in the San Gabriel Valley,” said Myers, who added that her group opposed Proposition Y because there is insufficient parking on only one side of the street.

“The people who voted for Y have yet to see what inconvenience is,” she added.

Controversial Issue

Before the election, Councilman John Nobrega called overnight parking “the most controversial issue in the city.”

Residents of this city of 32,650 have been almost equally divided over the issue, which surfaced in 1984 when street-cleaning problems prompted the city to send questionnaires to each household, soliciting opinions on overnight parking.

Nearly 54% of respondents wanted a ban on overnight parking, and an additional 35% favored some other kind of parking restriction.

But city administrators received only minimal cooperation when they asked car owners to voluntarily keep vehicles off the street on cleaning days. After two poorly attended public hearings, the council voted in January to ban overnight parking.

Although the measure was never enforced, residents in the central portion of the city, where driveways and garages of many older homes do not provide enough off-street parking, balked.

City Atty. Richard J. Morillo had estimated that enforcement and administration of the ban would have cost the city from $15,000 to $30,000 yearly. He said revenue from parking citations probably would have covered the cost.

Baldwin Park

The beleaguered Sierra Vista Redevelopment Project moved a giant step closer to realization when voters approved a ballot measure giving city administrators the go-ahead on the project.

Of the city’s 15,806 registered voters, 4,210 voted in favor of the project and 3,253 against it.

“This project will be a big, big help to everyone,” said Mayor Jack White on Wednesday. “We will go forward with our project and it will be done responsibly.”

Frank Fitzgerald, a member of Baldwin Park’s Planning Commission, said the Sierra Vista project will create jobs and wipe out what he called a blighted area.

Attracting New Business

The city hopes that the site along the San Bernardino Freeway, which is now dotted with deteriorating structures, will attract a variety of new businesses, Fitzgerald said.

“Anybody who sees our freeway corridor knows it could use some improvement,” he said. “It’s good for the future of the city.”

However, opponents, who see the project as sacrificing the rights of homeowners and small businessmen to the interests of developers and large corporations, disagree.

“I hardly know what to say. This is a shocker,” said Lorin Lovejoy of the Baldwin Park Homeowners’ Group, which has fought the project.

Further Action

Frank Ramirez, chairman of the homeowners’ group, indicated on Wednesday that his organization might take further action to halt the project.

“Yes, we do have something else afoot,” he said. “But I will not reveal that now. We will be holding a meeting soon.”

Opponents contend that private enterprise rather than the city should upgrade the area.

The proposal to develop the two-mile stretch along the freeway has created controversy since the council approved the project last summer. Hundreds have turned out in opposition at City Council meetings and signed petitions to get the measure on the ballot.

The Sierra Vista project is the city’s sixth and largest Community Redevelopment Agency project and Measure F, the only city issue on the ballot, asked whether the project should be approved.

South Pasadena

Voters gave the City Council the OK to continue opposing the extension of the Long Beach Freeway through their city, overwhelmingly approving Proposition GG by a vote of 6,184 to 2,537.

“The city has rejected Caltrans like the state has rejected (California Chief Justice) Rose Bird,” Mayor Lee Prentiss said Wednesday.

“I’m going to write a letter to Caltrans and say, ‘Go West or not at all,’ ” Prentiss said. “There’s never going to be a Meridian Route here and the vote shows that.”

Robert Cook, who led opposition to Proposition GG, said, “I didn’t think it would be quite as one-sided. There were scare tactics that were unfounded, but that is to be expected in an election.

“It’s not sour grapes for me. I accept the outcome as how the people feel about the extension.”

22-Year Battle

South Pasadena, which has 13,620 registered voters, has been battling for 22 years Caltrans’ plans to extend the freeway through the city.

Tuesday’s ballot measure asked voters whether the city should continue to oppose the proposed Meridian Route, a 6.2-mile extension that would snake through the city along Meridian Avenue. The Meridian Route would divide the city and destroy 106 historical landmarks, opponents say.

Because of heavy opposition, Caltrans earlier this year introduced an alternate route, the Meridian Variation, which would save half of the threatened historic structures but would still cut through the center of the city.

That route, which is now being considered by the Federal Highway Administration, would swing westerly toward Prospect Avenue before it connects with the Pasadena Freeway.

South Pasadena has tried to negotiate with Caltrans but has not been able to get guarantees from the state agency to prevent destruction of any historical structures in the city, Prentiss said.

Pasadena Court

Judson W. Morris won a decisive victory in the runoff election for Pasadena Municipal Court judge, defeating Kevil W. Martin by 42,860 votes to 18,340.

Morris, 43, has been a deputy district attorney for Los Angeles County for 10 years. He will begin his six-year term on Jan. 2.

Morris and Martin were the top finishers in the June primary, in which none of the five candidates received more than the 50% of the vote needed to win. Morris had received 13,852 votes to Martin’s 8,125.

Calling his victory an “overwhelming experience,” Morris said he depended on grass-roots politics to win.

“I was hitting the streets, shaking the hands, knocking the doors and making people know who I am,” Morris said.

Not Discouraged

Martin, 43, who has been a Pasadena Municipal Court commissioner for five years, said he was not discouraged by Tuesday’s results.

“If I knew why I lost, I would take what I learned and run for President. But one defeat doesn’t mean anything,” Martin said.

However, Martin did commend his opponent’s hard campaigning.

“Jud worked his little tail off. I’m not going to take that away from him,” Martin said.

The Pasadena Judicial district, which has 120,000 registered voters, covers Pasadena, Sierra Madre, San Marino, South Pasadena and portions of Temple City and Altadena.

Morris, a Pasadena resident, was the only candidate in the primary who was rated “well qualified” by the Los Angeles County Bar Assn., which also issues “qualified” and “not qualified” ratings. Martin, a La Canada resident, received a “qualified” rating.

The vacancy for the post, which pays $74,431 a year, was created when Judge Samuel L. Laidig retired after 15 years on the bench.

Alhambra School Board

Incumbents Dora S. Padilla and Charles C. Scanlon defeated challenger Joseph A. Castro to retain their seats on the Alhambra City and High School Districts Board of Education.

Padilla, a housewife and board member since 1978, was the leader in the election, receiving 22,010 votes. Scanlon, a former teacher and administrator in the district who has served on the board since 1974, received 20,985 votes. Castro, a Security Pacific bank executive, got 11,687 votes.

The five-member board governs elementary schools in Alhambra and the high school district, which includes parts of Monterey Park, Rosemead and San Gabriel.

Padilla, 52, said her strategy in the campaign was “just to whip the man (Castro).”

Relying on what she called the “Alpha Beta (supermarket) way,” Padilla said her campaign strategy was to “tell my friends and they would tell their friends and so on.”

Experience Was Decisive

His experience on the board was probably the deciding factor in his reelection, said Scanlon, 77.

“The voters know I have the background. I’ve been here in the schools since 1934,” Scanlon said.

Castro, 31, a 1976 graduate of California State University, Northridge, who is studying for his master’s degree at Claremont Graduate School, emphasized his educational background. He said he thought it would be a much closer race.

“I still think I am the best candidate. But there was last-minute mudslinging on their part,” Castro said.

Padilla and Scanlon had called Castro “a newcomer to the school district.” But Castro, a two-year resident of Alhambra, denied that.

West Covina

Voters overwhelmingly rejected a proposal that would have made the city treasurer’s office an appointive rather than an elected position, by a vote of 13,024 to 8,480.

A similar proposition, which would have made both the city clerk’s and the city treasurer’s positions appointive, was rejected by voters in 1979. More than half of the city’s 40,886 registered voters turned out for Tuesday’s election.

“I’m disappointed, but the voters have spoken and in our system, that’s what it’s all about,” said Mayor Chester Shearer.

He added that the lack of any campaigning on behalf of the proposition contributed to its defeat.

“The irony here is that of the 21,000 people who voted, I doubt that the next city treasurer election will bring out a third of that vote,” Shearer said. “That’s kind of a dichotomy, where people say that want to retain the right to vote, but they don’t do it.”

Diamond Bar

Donald G. Stokes, 65, and Daniel O. Buffington, 36, were elected to the Municipal Advisory Council from a field of five candidates.

Stokes, an insurance agent who has served on the five-member council since its inception 10 years ago, finished first with 4,887 votes. Buffington, a podiatrist, received 3,750 votes.

Stokes is a longtime advocate of incorporating the community of 70,000. Buffington has expressed mixed feelings over the hotly contested issue of cityhood.

Others in the race were Gary H. Werner, who received 3,617 votes; Joseph J. McManus, who received 3,397 votes; and Douglas J. Ort, who received 1,207 votes.

Votes were cast by 10,403 of the 17,887 registered voters.

Staff writers Jesse Katz and Denise-Marie Santiago contributed to this story.