Hawthorne Election Race Heating Up to Lukewarm

By JULIO MORAN

Oct. 18, 1987 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

Unlike many Hawthorne city elections in recent years, when development issues and personal attacks dominated the campaigns, the races for two council seats and the mayor’s job are quiet, polite and devoid of major issues.

“This election does seem to be more bland, more mundane,” said incumbent Councilman Steve Andersen, who was first elected in 1983 and is seeking another four-year term.

Write-In Candidate

Indeed, had electrical contractor Mike Martin not qualified as a write-in candidate after the filing period closed, Andersen and incumbent Councilwoman Ginny McGinnis Lambert would have only one challenger in the race for two seats: Eleanore I. Carlson, a business school job placement counselor.

In Hawthorne, council members do not run in districts. The top two vote-getters will be elected.

In the mayoral contest, incumbent Mayor Betty J. Ainsworth, who is seeking her second two-year term, is being challenged by self-styled “neighborhood advocate” Kathleen (Kathy) Corsiglia, an unsuccessful council candidate in 1985.

Voters will also cast ballots on a special tax to raise $300,000 annually for a new paramedic unit. A two-thirds vote is needed for passage.

Joan Fitzsimmons, chief deputy city clerk, said she expects about 20% of the 21,403 registered voters in this 5.6-square-mile city of 63,000 residents to show up at the polls Nov. 3. Voter turnout at the last two city elections was 18.6% for the March, 1986, special election in which Lambert was elected to fill the council vacancy created when Ainsworth was elected mayor, and 17.5% in the November, 1985, election when Councilmen David York and Charles Bookhammer were reelected.

With a little more than two weeks remaining before this year’s election, the closest thing to a controversy is the decision by York and Bookhammer to snub Lambert by endorsing Andersen and Martin.

“I would do nothing outwardly to hurt Councilwoman Lambert,” York said. “She’s doing the best she can. I have no grudges or anything against her. But I’ve known (Martin) since he was about 14 and watched him grow up into a fine young man. He’s bright and level-headed and I think he would do a good job as a councilman.”

Mind Made Up

“I don’t want to take cheap shots at anyone, but Ginny Lambert is too narrow-minded,” Bookhammer said. “She has her mind made up before the meeting and there is nothing anyone can say to change it. . . . As for Steve, he has always been a conscientious council member.”

Lambert downplayed the lack of support from her colleagues, saying, “They didn’t support me in my last election and I don’t think it has proven to be any detriment.”

She also said that if pushing for a certain project is narrow-minded, then her colleagues are guilty of it, too.

“In certain instances, you can say that about each of us, especially if you have a pet project you are trying to promote,” Lambert said.

Less surprising is the endorsement of the two challengers by the Hawthorne Firemen’s Assn. The firefighters have been seeking a significant salary boost that would place them among the top three municipal departments in the South Bay, but in each of the past three years the City Council has given only 5% salary increases.

The firemen’s union has contributed $2,000 each to the campaigns of Martin and Carlson. The association has also endorsed Ainsworth but did not contribute any money to her because, a spokesman said, she did not ask for any.

Special Property Tax

Harold Hofmeister, vice president of the firemen’s union, said the group endorsed the challengers because they have long been supporters of adding a second paramedic unit. Hofmeister said Andersen’s and Lambert’s support of the additional paramedics has come only recently--an assertion that both incumbents deny.

Proposition H on the ballot asks voters whether a special property tax based on the diameter of a parcel’s water main should be imposed over the next seven years to raise more than $300,000 annually for a second paramedic unit.

The annual assessments would range from $16 for a line less than one inch wide--the size used in most single-family homes--to $2,844 for a 10-inch-wide line. The only one that large is at Northrop Corp.

In the ballot argument in favor of the measure, Andersen said the second paramedic unit is needed because about 25% of the calls last year came in when paramedics already were busy. He said the council “searched and researched” other methods of raising money and reluctantly decided on the special tax to “spread the cost over the widest possible base.”

Corsiglia, who wrote the ballot argument against the proposition, acknowledged the need for the additional paramedic unit, but said the special tax is not the way to pay for it.

County Fire Service

“If the voters can get over the emotional aspect of the issue, it will not pass,” she said.

Corsiglia said she believes the money could be found in the Fire Department’s nearly $5-million budget if overtime and other expenses were cut back.

“The Fire Department has not been audited by an outside service to determine if the tax is needed,” she said in her written argument.

Corsiglia is also critical of a council decision this summer not to explore the feasibility of having the county provide fire service on a contract basis.

Supporters of the proposition are confident that most voters favor the special tax, but are uncertain whether a two-thirds majority can be attained.

“At the present time it doesn’t look too good,” said Hofmeister, the union vice president.

Here, in alphabetical order, are brief descriptions of the two candidates for mayor, followed by sketches of the council hopefuls:

Ainsworth, 61, a part-time tax consultant, served as a councilwoman for seven years before being elected mayor in 1985 with 78% of the vote. She is the immediate past president of the South Bay Cities Assn., an advisory group, and is the city’s delegate to the Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts.

She takes credit for a new 75-unit senior citizen housing project that is going up and an expansion of the senior center.

She said future residential development in the city should be single-family houses or condominiums, and said she hopes to encourage commercial development to provide new tax revenue for the city.

“We need hotels and restaurants in the city,” she said.

Help Reduce Utility Tax

Ainsworth said additional revenue could help eliminate or reduce the city’s 3.5% utility users tax. “If we could reduce it by even a quarter percent, that would help,” she said.

Ainsworth supports the paramedic measure and said she will campaign for its passage.

Corsiglia, 40, a registered nurse, acknowledged that she did not have a chance of winning a council seat in 1985 because she had no campaign funds or name recognition. But she said she is “extremely serious” about running for mayor this time, even though she said she still will not spend any money on her campaign.

“I am not going to spend a penny on something that I would do for free,” she said. “If I am elected I will donate my salary to the firemen’s fund” for the new paramedic unit. The mayor makes $250 a month.

Corsiglia said she is running for mayor rather than taking another shot at a council seat because “I have been attending City Council meetings for the past two years and I feel I have graduated to run the show.”

‘Time to Step Up’

(In Hawthorne, the mayor is one of five council members and presides over meetings. Day-to-day administration of the city is handled by the city manager.)

Corsiglia, who became a City Hall watcher in 1985 after city officials failed to prevent a developer from building in the middle of a block where she owns a house, said Neighborhood Watch programs need to be expanded and that additional police officers are needed to combat increasing crime.

Corsiglia said her main gripe against Ainsworth is that she has been on the council long enough.

“Her time is up,” Corsiglia said. “It’s time for her to step up. Betty should replace (County Supervisor Kenneth) Hahn or (Assemblyman Richard) Floyd (D-Hawthorne).”

Andersen, 45, a real estate attorney, was first elected to the council in February, 1983, to an unexpired term after a recall election removed three council members. He was elected to his first full term in November, 1983.

Andersen said he is seeking reelection to “continue the things and trends that we have helped get started,” including “sensible” development, revising the city’s general plan and revitalizing the city’s commercial areas, particularly along Hawthorne Boulevard.

He said the fact that the two incumbents are being challenged by only two opponents indicates that “in general, staff and council are doing a good job.”

Andersen supports the paramedic measure, calling it the “the least harmful” way to pay for the second paramedic unit. He said that despite the firefighters’ claims, he has been supportive of the additional unit “since Day 1.”

Neighborhood Watch

He said he expects to spend about $8,000 on his campaign, mostly for mailers and lawn signs.

Carlson, 47, a job placement counselor for a business school in Lawndale, identifies herself on the ballot as a “concerned community citizen.”

A 21-year resident of Hawthorne, Carlson has been involved in PTA and Neighborhood Watch in the Moneta Gardens area.

She said the city needs to get more involved in dealing with youth gangs, and is leading an effort to get back county gang counselors that were eliminated because of budget cutbacks.

Carlson said the city has too many apartments and said she favors encouraging development of single-family houses and condominiums. She also supports the paramedic measure.

Carlson said she expects to spend about $5,000, some of the money coming from candy bars she sells at work for 55 cents, in addition to the firefighters’ $2,000 contribution.

Tough Fight

Martin, 29, who owns an electrical contracting business in Torrance, is active in Kiwanis and will make his first run at public office as a write-in candidate.

He said he was approached to run before the filing period ended and decided against it, but changed his mind after supporters--including the firefighters union, York and Bookhammer--continued to encourage his candidacy.

He said he realizes it will be a tough fight.

“It’s hard enough facing incumbents, but it will twice as hard with my name not on the ballot,” he said.

A lifelong Hawthorne resident, Martin said he is seeking office not because he is interested in politics, but because “I’m interested in my community.”

“I have no bone to pick with either incumbent. I think I am the best person for the job,” he said.

Martin said he made no deal to obtain the firefighters’ endorsement.

“I made no deals or promises,” he said. “The only thing I said is that I would try to look at their situation with an open mind, as I would any other situation.”

He said he will vote for the paramedic measure, although he has concerns that the special tax may be a burden on some elderly residents.

He said the city needs some “first-class” commercial development to increase revenue.

“What we don’t need is 25 to 30 video stores in a town this size,” he said, noting a proliferation of mini-malls. “People are passing through our streets to get to other cities to do their shopping. We need to get them to stop and shop in Hawthorne.”

Elected in ’86

Lambert, 55, a Northrop administrative assistant, was elected in April, 1986, to serve out Ainsworth’s term when Ainsworth was elected mayor. Lambert came in first in a field of three candidates with 43% of the vote.

Lambert had long been a critic of City Hall, and she has acknowledged that some of that feistiness has irked her colleagues on the council. But she said she works well with the other council members.

“I would hate to think that we are all alike,” she said.

In her campaign last year she defended the buildup of apartments in the city, saying it reflected a demand for housing and proximity to jobs.

She acknowledged that the city may now have its fill of apartments, and said she will try to encourage the development of single-family houses, town houses and condominiums.

She takes some credit for holding detailed public hearings on the city budget, the construction of the new senior citizen housing project and a city sports complex in Holly Park scheduled for construction next year.

Lambert agrees that a second paramedic unit is needed, but she declined to say how she will vote on the proposal, saying she will simply let the voters decide whether they want the special tax.

Even if the measure is defeated, she said, “I can guarantee that we will get a second paramedic unit.”

THE CANDIDATES

Betty Ainsworth Incumbent mayor

Age: 61

Occupation: Tax consultant

Resident: 29 years

Kathleen Corsiglia Mayoral candidate

Age: 40

Occupation: Nurse

Resident: 16 years

Steven Andersen Council incumbent

Age: 45