Norwalk Incumbent Campaigns Hard in Quiet Council Contest

Luigi A. Vernola, who was appointed to the City Council last spring, expects to spend about $9,000 in his campaign to retain his seat in next month’s special election. He is throwing two fund-raisers, sending out thousands of promotional mailers and pounding more than 400 campaign signs into the ground. He has about 100 volunteers helping him.

These are the activities of an incumbent in a heated political contest. Yet, in marked contrast to Norwalk’s last council election in 1986, the three-way competition for Vernola’s slot has barely generated a spark.

One opponent, Ron Kelly, is all but invisible. Other than filing his candidate’s papers with the city clerk’s office, he has mounted no campaign. The second challenger, political newcomer Richard D. Buttery, gives himself virtually no chance of winning, conceding, “I’m really a long shot. It will be a major upset if I win.”

Speaking of Vernola, Buttery remarked, “I can’t figure out how come he needs such a big campaign.”

Predicts Low Spending

Buttery doubts that he will spend more than $500 on his election effort, with more than half of the money coming from his own pockets. His campaign manager is his daughter’s boyfriend, an out-of-work political science major.

Buttery has held no fund-raisers. “I can’t come up with a gimmick. Who’s going to come see me outside of the friends who came to my birthday party?” He has about seven volunteers helping him, “plus my kids.”

He says he is running primarily because Vernola was “hand-picked” by the council to take the place of Cecil N. Green, who resigned after winning a seat in the state Senate in a special election last May. The winner of the council race Nov. 3 will fill the remaining 2 1/2 years of Green’s unexpired term.

“Give people a choice,” explained Buttery, a 52-year-old sales manager for Daily Saw Service in South Gate. He added that he thinks the $622-a-month council position “would be a great part-time job.”

Buttery’s major campaign call is for a change in Norwalk’s police services. He argues that if the city dumped its contract with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and joined forces with nearby communities, it would have better police protection.

Makes No Apologies

Vernola, a 43-year-old former planning commissioner and local businessman active in civic groups, makes no apologies for his campaign spending. “I could have sat back and done nothing, but I don’t think people like that. . . . I’m going to run an aggressive campaign whether anybody’s running or not.”

During his five months as a councilman, Vernola has steered a middle-of-the road course, maintaining a relatively low profile. A former campaign manager for Councilman Marcial (Rod) Rodriguez, the lifelong Norwalk resident is supported by the rest of the council in his election bid.

Vernola voted for the city’s existing moratorium on most new apartment construction, favors a reduction in the number of units allowed in apartment zones and thinks the city should devise an overall plan to guide its redevelopment efforts.

While Vernola speaks well of the city’s redevelopment projects, he said he is concerned that they are being undertaken on a piecemeal basis, without benefit of long-term vision. “I see a challenge in the redevelopment to come up with some sort of a guidepost to see where we’re going,” said Vernola, who owns two local garages, a service station and a towing service.

The 10-month-long apartment moratorium, due to expire next spring, was adopted to give the city time to study its multifamily zones, many of which allow higher density development than outlined in the general plan, Norwalk’s master planning document.

Saying that it is important to maintain the “family” atmosphere of Norwalk, Vernola said the 26 units per acre allowed in apartment zones is too high. Multifamily developments would be more attractive, he said, if the density were restricted to about 18 units. At the same time, he favors creating a new category of residential zoning to allow construction of single-family homes on smaller lots than is now permitted.

High School Site

Vernola says he does not know what should be done with the Excelsior High School site, closed several years ago due to declining enrollment and now leased in part by the Grace Korean Church. Although the school was recently pulled off the market by the Norwalk-La Mirada Unified School District, city planners assume it will eventually be up for sale again, reviving the debate over whether the buildings should be preserved or replaced with commercial or residential development.

Among the campaign contributions listed in Vernola’s September campaign statement, Grace Korean was by far Vernola’s most generous supporter. Of the $6,285 Vernola had received in contributions as of Sept. 19, the church donated $1,000. Vernola said he was surprised by the contribution and has not talked to church leaders about Excelsior’s future.

The majority of the remaining campaign contributions came from area businesses, including $300 from Dial Chevrolet, which sells auto parts to the city. Regency Outdoor Advertising Co. of Los Angeles, which last year won council approval to erect two billboards in town, gave Vernola $250.

Buttery, who has lived in Norwalk off and on for 20 years, said he likely would have supported the apartment moratorium. Nonetheless, he indicated he is satisfied with current multifamily zoning. Norwalk does not need more apartment zones, he said, nor should the permissible density in multifamily areas be reduced.

On the matter of Excelsior, he said he opposes demolition of the high school, but is not sure what the buildings should be used for.

Arguing that the city should drop its contract with the county Sheriff’s Department, Buttery contends that if Norwalk joined another city’s police department, such as Downey’s, “we could get more for our dollar and better service.” He offered no figures, instead suggesting the city conduct a study to evaluate the economics of such a switch.

Critical of Deputies

Citing several personal experiences, Buttery maintains that the Norwalk sheriff’s station does a poor job.

On one occasion, he said, sheriff’s deputies scouring his neighborhood for robbery suspects held a loaded shotgun to his 12-year-old daughter’s head. When his apartment was broken into six years ago, the responding sheriff’s unit left on a call in the middle of filling out his complaint. Moments after they left, Buttery said, the unarmed burglar walked out of his bedroom.

And when he accidently struck a young bicyclist with his car, Buttery said it took far too long for the Sheriff’s Department to get to the scene. He was not charged and the youngster was not seriously hurt, added Buttery, who worked as a police dispatcher in Downey, Beverly Hills and Maywood in the 1960s.

Kelly, 28, could not be reached for an interview despite repeated attempts. He ran unsuccessfully for a council seat in 1984, when he worked as a truck driver. In the candidate’s statement he filed in August, he listed no occupation. He described himself as a hard-working husband and father, and said it was time the city elected some “real, everyday people.”