Discord in Covina Drives Off Manager, Applicants

This city is having a difficult time finding a successor to City Manager Richard Miller for the same reason he is leaving after 10 years on the job.

“Nobody from around here would touch it (the job) because nobody wants to work with a split council,” Councilman Henry Morgan said.

Miller said his inability to bring harmony to the council, whose members are usually divided on major issues and often belligerent toward one another during council meetings, is the major reason he is leaving.

“I just get frustrated,” said Miller, who is screening applications and has agreed to remain as city manager until a successor is chosen. Constant haranguing by council members has hurt staff morale and slowed progress in Covina, Miller said.

Lack of Harmony

“We weren’t accomplishing the things I want to accomplish. I haven’t been able to create a harmonious atmosphere, which I feel is my responsibility,” he said, adding that someone else may be able to unify the council.

Despite a statewide search, only 25 people have applied for the job so far. City officials expected to receive at least 120 resumes by the Dec. 31 deadline for applications.

None of the applicants are from the local area and potential candidates in the San Gabriel Valley that Miller has approached have expressed misgivings about applying for the job because of the council’s reputation for infighting, he said.

“I started with a 5-0 vote and went down to 3-2,” Miller said of lagging support from the five council members. “Usually you go down. But with someone starting with a 3-2, that’s going to be hard.”

Miller complained that his vision for the city has been blocked by council members, each of whom, he says, has a separate agenda.

The council has stymied his efforts to build a new City Hall, redevelop the downtown area and increase tax revenue through an auto row project that officials believe would have generated about $10 million for the city over a 24-year period, Miller said.

“I’ve never expected the council to play dead when the city staff makes a recommendation,” Miller said, but “it certainly would be more harmonious if we all had the same goals or the same agendas.”

Decisions Are Split

Council members concede that they are not easy to get along with and that the usual 3-2 split on major issues makes it difficult to reach decisions.

“I don’t think the factions are going to agree on anything,” Councilman Charles G. Colvert said. “We’re too far apart.”

Generally, Colvert and Morgan form one faction, while Councilmen Jerry Edgar and Robert Low are on the other side. Mayor Larry Straight, who was elected to the chairmanship post by his fellow councilmen, is often left to cast the deciding vote. “Sometimes it’s a 3-2 one way or a 3-2 another way, depending on how I vote,” Straight said.

Edgar said he does not think council members should be team players. “I personally am not on this council for gratification of my ego. We’re not here to perpetuate the government. I hope that we never get to the point that we agree on everything. That means there’s no thinking.”

Leadership Questioned

Edgar and Low said they believe the council has failed to provide leadership and direction to the city staff. “The council either doesn’t want to or doesn’t know how,” Edgar said.

“Baloney,” Colvert retorted. “I don’t believe that at all. (Edgar and Low) believe that because they only have two votes. Three votes is the name of the game.”

Morgan concurs.

“As long as we have three votes, we can run the city in a pretty good fashion,” he said. “I would be concerned if the two votes would become a majority. . . . If they had a majority, they would always hold out until their little projects were covered.”

Straight, the newest member of the board, was elected in 1984. He said that the split between the council members “deals with personalities and the feelings they have for each other. They tend to take so many things personally and throw insults at each other, and that doesn’t get anyone anywhere.”

Efforts Are Futile

Straight said he is resigned to the in-fighting and has retreated from efforts to unify the council.

In conducting council meetings, Straight said he has tried to give each member a chance “to talk without being yelled at or shouted at.”

“I don’t think I’ve accomplished much,” he said, adding, “It’s a position I’ll never be in again. It’s not worth it to me. I don’t know that the citizens do anything but laugh at us. The people I know get a kick out of it.”

Other councilmen say that the differences involve issues, not personalities.

“I don’t think there are any personal feelings in the matter,” Colvert said. “I think it’s different views on how to best serve the city.”

Low said the problem is that the council “has no direction. I think council should attempt to collectively discuss issues and solve problems and I don’t think that’s happening.”

Leaving With Regrets

Caught in the middle is Miller, who said he is leaving with regrets about projects he has been unable to bring to fruition.

Among them is a proposal to build a new City Hall, which he said has always been a controversial issue in Covina. A similar proposal died in 1972 when a majority of the council voted to block construction.

Morgan and Colvert want a new City Hall. Edgar and Low are opposed. As usual, Straight finds himself holding the deciding vote, trying to appease both factions by suggesting that the city look for alternatives. The current building, at 125 E. College Ave., was constructed in 1929 when the city employed only five people, Miller said. Today, 45 people work in the building; other city departments are housed in an annex.

At a meeting last month, Miller told council members that the City Hall is overcrowded, inaccessible to the handicapped, not earthquake-proof and beset by electrical problems because the system is overloaded.

A Legal Requirement

Miller said the city is legally bound to make the City Hall accessible to the handicapped under regulations tied to federal revenue-sharing funds. The city has received about $6 million from the federal program, and may be required to return the money if it does not do something about accessibility, said Stanley McCartney, Covina’s finance director.

Miller told the council that constructing a new City Hall on land that the city already owns would cost $3 million, while making improvements to the current building would cost $2.6 million.

At the meeting, there were a number of heated exchanges over the issue.

“We’ve got a beautiful building here,” Edgar said. The city should not have to spend $3 million just because the present building is not accessible to the handicapped, he said. “Aren’t we making too big a deal of that?”

Look for a Cheaper Way

Edgar said the city should find cheaper ways to meet the federal requirements.

“Sure, we can put up a tent in the parking lot,” retorted Colvert. “We’re asking people to be safe and comfortable (in the building) when you can’t be either.”

Low said he opposes building a new City Hall because “there are other things that have a higher priority. . . . For some reason, we have a library that has a great number of antiquated books in it. I think we ought to focus on programs to improve the intellectual climate of the city.”

Low used similar arguments in blocking city efforts to condemn land that would have allowed an auto dealer to expand his business.

Low’s support was crucial because state law requires a four-fifths majority vote on issues of condemnation. Edgar was required to abstain because he owns land in the project area. The other three council members supported the project, but Low voted against it, and the project was scuttled after the dealer asked to be released from a letter of intent he signed with the city.

Wanted Funds for Library

Low offered to support the condemnation only if the council promised to earmark $120,000 of the tax revenue to help the library.

“I don’t think the community is working as hard as it should to develop an intellectual climate that is required for 1986,” Low said. “We can work harder to do better.”

Low is “what we call a gadfly,” Colvert said. “He’s never been a team player. . . . That was the worst of his actions and that cost the city dearly, purely on a whim of his.”

That was one of the milder comments Low’s colleagues made about his vote against the auto row project.

Low said his is an opinion that “deserves consideration if you’re the top vote-getter in three successive elections. The people voted for me. I think that ultimately the council should be accountable to the people who voted.”

Began as a Fireman

The auto row flap caused Miller, who began work for the city in 1951 as a fireman, to begin rethinking his future.

“We weren’t accomplishing the things I want to accomplish,” said Miller, who plans to work as a consultant for real estate developers.

Miller said he was especially distressed that his plans for redeveloping the downtown area are just now beginning to take shape.

Miller said property owners initially rejected attempts to include the downtown area in a redevelopment project, which would have allowed the city to use Community Development Agency money for improvements.

Downtown Property Owner

But lack of support from the council, specifically from Edgar, who owns property in the downtown area, made city staff members weary of pushing the project, said Michael Marquez, director of the Community Development Agency.

“In the past, (Edgar’s) attitude has been that the merchants could probably take better care of themselves than getting the government involved,” Marquez said. “We sometimes get an impression in terms of what they (council members) believe and we’ll say, ‘Well, we’ll leave this alone.”’

But Edgar’s opposition has softened, Marquez said, and the city is studying what improvements are needed to attract shoppers to the downtown area.

Marquez said he “almost” enjoys the disagreements among council members. “When there’s not discussion or vital comments made, it might be easy to fall along the path and make errors.

Nevertheless, Marquez said working with the council is “like a tug of war. There’s like a pulling in one direction or another. You just continue to struggle; you want to stay out of the mud pit.”