Conflicts Could Trap Azusa Golf Course Vote

Because four councilmen may have a conflict of interest, the city is facing an unusual handicap in deciding whether to allow the replacement of its only golf course with a housing development.

Four of the five council members either own or once owned property near the course, raising the question of whether they can vote on a zoning change for the 106-acre Azusa Greens Country Club.

City Administrator Lloyd Wood said the hotly debated plan to build 1,164 single-family homes and apartments, as well as a 19-acre industrial park, has “turned into quite a political football.”

The decision-making has become complicated because:

- Mayor Eugene Moses has been told by the state Fair Political Practices Commission that he definitely has a conflict of interest.

- Councilmen James Cook and Bruce Latta have been told by the commission that they may have a conflict even though they recently sold or transferred holdings near the course.

- Councilman Lucio Cruz has decided that he has a conflict and has vowed not to cast a vote on the plan.

The one member who does not have a conflict, Councilwoman Jennie Avila, is not saying how she will vote.

Cook is solidly behind the plan, Latta is a staunch opponent, Cruz is undecided and Moses said he would follow the wishes of the public.

Three of the five council members are required to vote on the zoning change, so at least two of the members who may have a conflict will have to cast ballots on the project, called the Sierra Mesa development.

Commission officials have told City Atty. Peter Thorson that the four council members in question may have to draw straws to determine which two will vote.

“I’ll be one of the happier ones when this thing gets resolved, whichever way it gets resolved,” Wood said.

No decision is expected until early next year.

No matter who votes, city officials believe the outcome will generate further controversy. Dozens of residents who live near the golf course have voiced their opposition to the project.

“My perception is, no matter what we do we’re going to wind up in court,” Latta said. “If we reject it, the developer will sue. If we don’t, the citizens will.”

First Plan Withdrawn

Johnny E. Johnson of Santa Fe Springs, who has owned and operated the golf course for 20 years, proposed the construction of 1,540 homes and condominiums on the golf course and surrounding land in June, 1985.

However, Johnson quickly withdrew that proposal after hundreds of residents complained to city officials and 4,457 people signed a petition opposing the plan.

A year later, Johnson proposed a scaled-down project calling for 457 single-family homes, 707 apartment units and 225,000 square feet of industrial development on 111 acres.

The opposition has not subsided.

“Now the community is up in arms more so than they were before,” said Charles Wilkes, president of the Action Committee to Save Azusa Greens, which was formed in 1985 to fight the project.

“And it’s not just people around the golf course,” Wilkes said. “We’re talking about the entire city of Azusa. This golf course is the best thing Azusa has.”

Christopher Sutton, an attorney representing the committee, said residents are circulating a petition to get an initiative on the ballot to maintain the area for recreational use if the council approves Johnson’s project.

Petition sponsors have six months to collect the necessary 1,300 signatures, 10% of the city’s 13,000 registered voters, he said.

“Mr. Johnson has a very long and difficult task to get what he wants out of the city of Azusa,” Sutton said.

Sutton said about 60 homeowners claim they paid an additional $2,000 or more for their properties near the golf course and do not want to lose their views. Opponents also contend that the project would exacerbate overcrowding in schools and strain city services.

“I think the golf course is a bigger plus to a city than 1,100 more homes,” said Councilman Latta.

After a crowded public hearing last month, the Planning Commission deferred a recommendation on the proposed zoning change until January.

Remains Adamant

Johnson, however, is determined to proceed.

“My business is to develop land, not to be a golf-course operator,” said Johnson, who developed the course on part of a 500-acre parcel he purchased in 1958.

The course originally served as a buffer between homes being built in the area and the Owl Rock Quarry, located on land that Johnson also owns.

“It cannot stay a golf course and it will not stay a golf course,” he said, adding that he is not making any money on the course, which draws about 100 golfers each weekday and about 300 each Saturday and Sunday.

Johnson had agreed to keep the golf course open until at least 1988 or as long as the quarry continues to operate. He now contends that the buffer no longer is needed because quarry operations have moved far from the homes. However, city officials said they hope to hold Johnson to the agreement.

Threatens Council

Johnson has threatened to let the the course deteriorate if the council fails to approve the development or cannot find a way to buy the land from him at “fair market value.”

“It will no doubt go back to the same property I purchased,” he said. “It’ll be barren land with trash all over it.”

Both the city and Johnson are having the land appraised.

Council members agree that the city does not have the money to buy the course, whatever its value. The city might be able to issue a bond to buy the course but council members are not sure that voters would approve one.

Dealing With Conflict

In the meantime, city officials are grappling with the conflict-of-interest issue.

Thorson last December asked the Fair Political Practices Commission for help in sorting out the problem.

A commission official said in a decision that Moses has a clear conflict. Moses has owned the Canyon City Ghost Town, on 2.5 acres of land about 1,000 feet north of the course, since 1971.

Moses said the amusement center is closed to the public but can be used at no cost by charitable organizations for fund-raising events.

“It is virtually inconceivable that a project of the size and scope that is proposed here would not have a reasonably foreseeable material financial effect upon Mayor Moses’ real property interest,” Robert Leidigh, counsel for the commission, wrote in a memorandum to Thorson.

Unsure of Conflict

Although Moses agrees that he has a conflict, Cook is not sure he does.

In September, Cook traded his interest in a condominium 300 feet from the golf course for a home elsewhere in the city, specifically to rid himself of a potential conflict so he could vote for the project.

But after checking with the commission, Thorson told both Cook and Latta that they may still have a conflict because they owned the properties within a year of a probable vote on the plan and the value of that property may have gone up or down by $1,000 as a result of the project.

“We don’t know for sure that I can’t vote,” Cook said, “but four people can’t vote and somebody’s got to on it. I think in this day and age, $1,000 is a poor measuring device of whether there would be a conflict of interest.”

No Connection With Vote

Latta said he did not sell his condominium 450 feet from the course “to free myself of any conflict of interest. I was just tired of having a condo.”

Cruz, who owns 1.5 acres of commercial property 800 feet from the golf course, insists he will not vote, even if his name is chosen in a drawing.

“The Fair Political Practices Commission can’t force me to vote if I don’t want to vote, draw straws or no draw straws,” said Cruz, who said Cook and Latta should be allowed to vote because they no longer own condominiums near the course.

“The others are hoping I can vote so they don’t have to, because it’s going to be the most controversial issue to face this town in a long time,” Latta said.

Prepared for Drawing

Wood is prepared for a drawing.

“Initially, we thought that since two council members sold off their property, that three (members) would be able to vote, and we thought it would be no problem.”

But after consultation with the commission, Wood said, the net result is that the names of the four council members will be dropped in a box “and they will draw two names.”

“I’m just looking forward to the day we get the matter settled,” he said.