MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS : Redondo Beach

The March municipal elections in Redondo Beach will be a family affair as City Treasurer Alice E. DeLong vies for a fourth term while her niece attempts to unseat City Clerk John Oliver.

Voters in Districts 3 and 5 also will elect City Council members. Filing for the March 3 election closed last week.

One of the DeLong’s challengers, William A. MacAlpin, said he will remind voters that last January, DeLong said family responsibilities were demanding too much of her time and submitted her resignation. Two weeks later, she withdrew her resignation, saying she feared that the City Council would appoint a longtime political foe, former mayor Dave Hayward, to the remaining year of her term.

DeLong was out of town and could not be reached for comment.

MacAlpin said he was encouraged to run by council members Ronald A. Cawdrey, Jack Chapman, Kay Horrell and Archie Snow. He said that he will have to overcome being an “unknown” and expects the third candidate, Bruce Unruh, to draw a lot of votes.

Unruh, son of state Treasurer Jess Unruh, could not be reached for comment. His campaign statement, which gave his occupation as finance director, said he had been an assistant city manager and a legislative analyst.

DeLong’s niece, Dawn Ayers, who is running for city clerk, said her involvement with Redondo Beach’s government has been limited to following council meetings through the newspapers.

“I’ve been toying with the idea (of running for city clerk) for about a month, but I wanted to make sure, personally, I could devote the time,” she said. “My understanding of the job is basically financially oriented and that’s my background.”

Ayers has a bachelor’s degree in business administration and worked in banking for six years and accounting for 2 1/2 years. She is a financial analyst for Glenfed Capital Corp. in Glendale.

City Clerk Oliver said he was surprised to learn of Ayers’ relationship to DeLong.

“I guess the treasurer wants to keep the finances of the city in the family,” he said.

The two officers work together closely, he said, because the treasurer is responsible for keeping track of incoming money and the clerk is in charge of accounting for outgoing money.

“I’m just going to run on my record. It’s just kind of simple, the city is a sound financial picture,” said Oliver, who has been clerk since 1982.

Council members Cawdrey and Marcia Martin are also running for reelection.

Martin, a security specialist at TRW, was elected in 1983. She is being challenged by attorney Steve Colin for the 3rd District seat. Colin is chairman of the Redondo Beach Public Improvement Commission and a civic activist.

Cawdrey is being challenged by James J. Isaac, a member of the South Bay Ecumenical Cluster and the Interfaith Peace Committee, and Deloris Thiessen, a homemaker. Cawdrey, vice president of the Communications Workers of America Local 9400, was appointed to the 5th District district seat in 1982 by the City Council after Gene King resigned. Cawdrey was elected to a four-year term in March, 1983.

An effort to recall Cawdrey in June, 1985, failed by a 55% majority.

Thiessen, who was one of 17 candidates who sought the council seat vacated by King, organized the recall effort. She and other recall proponents said that Cawdrey was not in tune with district residents because he supported proposals to develop all of the Aviation High School site, widen Flagler Lane and build several commercial projects in the King Harbor area.

Cawdrey said he expects those issues to be brought up again during the campaign.

The Redondo Beach City School District was scheduled to have an election in March, but only three candidates filed to run for the three seats. Incumbents Valerie Dombrowski and Sylvia Zellers will get new four-year terms and newcomer Bart Swanson will take the third slot, replacing Tom Krig.

Carson

Eight candidates have filed nominating papers for the City Council seat involuntarily vacated by Walter J. (Jake) Egan, who was removed from office in October after receiving a prison sentence for political corruption.

The March 3 election could determine the balance of power on the five-member council, which has been split since Egan, convicted in July on federal mail fraud and extortion charges, stopped participating in council affairs the month before.

Among the eight candidates, banker Michael Mitoma is expected to receive support from council members Kay Calas and Vera Robles DeWitt, who make up one of the council factions, and Aaron Carter is expected to be supported by Mayor Sylvia Muise and Mayor Pro Tem Tom Mills, the other council grouping, according to Mills.

Mitoma, who placed third in a council race last April behind incumbents Muise and Mills, is the president and chief executive officer of Pacific Business Bank of Carson.

Carter, an engineer with Hughes Aircraft Co. in El Segundo, said he has been involved in Carson civic affairs for 23 years.

The other candidates are Harry Daigle, an IBM technical specialist who is retiring in a month; Roye Love, director of employment programs for Inglewood and an unsuccessful candidate for council in 1981 and 1985; Alvaro Castaneda, export manager of Guest Transportation Corp. of Inglewood; James Fritz, a plant operator at Thums Oil Co. in Long Beach; Carole Ellwood, catering and sales manager of the Manhattan Country Club in Manhattan Beach, and Charles Peters, who did not list his occupation.

Election officials have validated nominating signatures for Daigle, Love, Carter and Castaneda and have not finished examining the remainder, according to the city clerk’s office.