Azusa Mayor Moses: Man Amok, or Misunderstood?

Azusa Mayor Eugene Moses sits in his City Hall office, flanked by pictures of his two heroes, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, and scribbles notes as visitors show up to ask for everything from stop signs to permission to broadcast Christmas carols over a sound truck.

Often the visits are interrupted by telephone calls. One caller reports that a street light is out. A man wants to know why the street sweeper skips his block. Another caller wants a tree trimmed.

The mayor listens patiently to each request, no matter how trivial, and promises to do what he can.

A few friends come by to commiserate over the drubbing the mayor is taking from councilmen who say he is “running amok” and acting like a dictator. Other political supporters call to cheer him up.

But Moses, 53, who is in his fifth year as mayor, is not easily cheered. He says he puts in 60 hours a week on city business and the council stabs him in the back.

A plaque on his desk seems to say it all: “When I’m right no one remembers; when I’m wrong, no one forgets.”

A couple of senior citizens drop by to offer encouragement in the political battle. The mayor tells one elderly visitor that he will come to his house later to help him write a letter, and he promises to drop by the senior citizens center later that day, as he often does to chat with his friends.

Although this personal service and supervision at City Hall may make Moses popular with the electorate, it infuriates colleagues. The City Council on a 3-2 vote last week stripped the mayor of a number of his powers and directed that his City Hall office be opened to the use of all council members.

Councilman Bruce Latta charged that Moses “thinks he gets things done, but just the opposite is true.

“I don’t know how many thousands of street lights we have, but of course some are going to burn out,” Latta said. “I don’t know how many hundreds of miles of curb we have, but of course there are going to be broken sidewalks. It’s very simple. All you have to do is call them in (to City Hall) and they get fixed.”

There was a steady stream of visitors and callers

to the mayor’s office one day recently. Art Morales,who functions as the mayor’s link to the largely Latino south side of the city, came in with news about the neighborhood and reported that he had heard that the city street sweepers were broken down. Morales lauded the mayor, saying, “He calls himself the people’s mayor and he is just that.”

Eleanor Post, who enlisted the mayor’s help in the nuclear freeze movement in 1983, called to offer her encouragement and told a reporter how Moses did not just endorse one of the group’s marches but actually walked himself, “which is unusual for a politician.”

During the day, Moses accepted an invitation to an anti-war event, told a man how to get a permit for a sound truck and periodically opened a connecting door to the office of the city administrator to relay information about burned-out street lights and broken pavement.

One caller, Vadonia Bailey, said she used to report her complaints to City Hall and either got no response or “a receiver slammed down in my ear,” but now she calls the mayor and he listens and acts.

‘Always Out Talking’

“I represent everyone in the city, whether they are on welfare or a millionaire,” Moses said. “I want to know what they want. I’m always out talking to people. I guess that’s why I get elected.”

But, Latta said, the mayor’s efforts on behalf of constituents cause problems at City Hall.

The mayor’s requests get priority from city crews, he said, and every other request for service made through normal channels gets delayed. Then, those people who are experiencing delays go to the mayor; he moves their requests up and they thank him.

The result, Latta said, is that the public thinks the mayor is doing a wonderful job and that city employees will not do anything without being prodded.

“It all goes back to creating mistrust at City Hall,” falsely leading people to believe that nothing gets done unless the mayor sees to it, Latta said.

‘Something Wrong’

“There’s something wrong with a city government that can’t function without the mayor there looking over their shoulder,” he said.

Moses dismisses such criticism. He said he always relays requests for service through proper channels to avoid disrupting the system.

Besides, he said, he pledged to voters that he would serve them full-time and he intends to carry out that promise even though his council salary, car allowance and fees for representing the city on the county Sanitation District board and other agencies amount to only $10,000 a year.

Moses is startlingly open about personal money matters. He said he has rental income that combined with his city position push his annual income to about $27,000. Moses, who is divorced and has a grown son, said he is able to live comfortably on that amount.

He drives around town in a white 1978 Ford Fairmont. He has a 1980 Buick, too, he said, but the engine blew out and he can’t afford to have it fixed.

Escalating Land Value

He owns more than two acres along San Gabriel Canyon Road that is worth close to $1 million, Moses said, and paid only $35,000 for it 15 years ago.

Moses said he has reached the point where money is not very important. So, he said, instead of selling his land or putting his time into more lucrative endeavors, he spends his day talking to his constituents.

Moses was elected to the City Council in 1978 and was elected mayor in 1982. He has been reelected twice since, each time getting at least 56% of the vote.

A Pennsylvania native, Moses graduated from John Muir High School in Pasadena and joined the Navy, seeing action in the Korean War.

After leaving the service, he worked as a die caster, operated a restaurant in Alhambra and for more than 20 years ran a business that leased coin-operated amusement machines.

Abandoned Ghost Town

About 15 years ago, he started building Canyon City Ghost Town on San Gabriel Canyon Road with the intention of developing it into a family recreation park on the order of Knott’s Berry Farm.

However, Moses said that when he was elected to the City Council, he put development of the property aside to avoid any conflict of interest and uses the property only for charity events.

He also ran a shop that sold fish bait and gold-panning equipment at the entrance to San Gabriel Canyon for several years, but quit that business when the property, which he rented, was bought by Councilman Lucio Cruz in 1984.

Moses said Cruz would have evicted him, given the chance, but Cruz said Moses would have been welcome to stay in the bait shop as a tenant.

The bait shop served as a gathering place for people who shared Moses’ interest in politics. He said he started using the City Hall office when he closed the bait shop, and although he does not come to City Hall every day, or keep regular office hours, people know they can reach him there.

Must Be Joking

At last week’s council meeting, several of the mayor’s political supporters said they thought council members must be joking when they complained that the mayor does too much. How can anyone complain about a person working too hard?

But that is the gist of the complaint made by councilmen Jim Cook, Cruz and Latta. Unlike many small cities that rotate the position of mayor among council members, Azusa voters elect the mayor directly.

Moses said it is a myth that the mayor has no more power than any other council member.

“Power comes from the people,” he said.

Still, Moses has only one of the five votes on the City Council, and he said he has no choice but to go along with new procedures the council adopted last week to trim his authority at City Hall.

No More Medallions

No longer, for example, will he be able to dispense medallions and proclamations on his own. Cruz said the mayor abused the privilege by handing out city honors at the rate of one a day.

City records show that 86 proclamations have been issued so far this year and 286 medallions with the city seal were given away in 15 months.

Moses acknowledged a report that a son of one of his political supporters peeled a city seal off a medallion and put it on a private security shield in a way that might suggest a police badge, but he said he investigated and found that no law had been violated.

The resolution also forbids council members from raiding the city employees’ refrigerator, a provision Latta said was prompted by complaints that the mayor had taken food. Moses denied the charge.

Cook contended that Moses browbeats city staff, grabs credit for himself and does his best to make other council members look bad.

‘Best Mayor’

When he talks about the city’s progress, Moses sometimes will start to say “I did” and then correct it to “we did.” However, the temptation to date the city’s rebirth from his election as mayor in 1982 is simply overwhelming, and ultimately he confides his judgment that he is “the best mayor in the San Gabriel Valley.”

He said graffiti in this city of 33,000 has all but disappeared, a large industrial development project is under way, a complex of 10 movie theaters has been built and the city’s financial position has improved drastically.

“They used to call this the junkyard,” he said, and comedians poked fun at the city.

He said he has been working to develop a new theme for the city and he offered a reporter a list of the city’s assets he had written that was headed:

DISCOVER AZUSA

“Everything from A-Z in the U.S.A.

“Exciting--Mysterious--Refreshing”

Moses listed recreation in San Gabriel Canyon above Azusa as the city’s leading attraction, but said he has been trying to develop a new theme for Azusa based on the city’s pure water.

Untreated Water

Azusa draws its water from underground wells and is one of the few cities whose well water is so pure that it can be delivered to customers without treatment, he said.

Moses said he gets reports on water quality every three months and reads them carefully because “I don’t trust no one when it comes to the people’s water.”

Moses said he also pores over city financial reports. The city finance director recently prepared 200 reports on all departmental expenses and credit-card payments at the mayor’s request.

The mayor cited his care in checking financial reports as an example of his diligence, but Latta said all the mayor is doing is wasting the staff’s time.

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The resolution adopted by the City Council last week will prevent the mayor from giving orders to the city administrator and other city employees without council approval and is designed to prevent the mayor or any council member from acting without approval of the full council.

Moses said he recognizes that the council members are elected, just as he is, and have the right to impose restrictions, but said he intends to keep working for the city as hard as ever.

He said the council “is trying to cripple me” but he still will offer his constituents the best service he can.

After all, he said, “The people of Azusa have elected me mayor and that is the highest honor they can give.”