Voters to Get the Final Word : In two school districts and a city where the election debate has been hottest, decisions will come at the polls Tuesday. : Duarte Council : Issues Multiply as Small Town Gets a Taste of Big-City Politics

In this community of 21,000 residents, a single major shopping center and no police force, much of life seems immutable.

Perhaps nothing has better reflected the steady, small-town virtues of Duarte than its City Council elections. Candidates have always been forced to dig deep for real issues and controversy. Campaigns were run on a shoestring; individual coffers rarely exceeded $1,000.

But in recent years, progress and development have left their indelible mark on Duarte. And while the community will probably always remain more a quiet village than a rumbling city, these are indeed tumultuous times for the little town at the foot of the San Gabriel Mountains.

Tuesday’s City Council election is a good measure of the change and turmoil. The five candidates--none of them incumbents--running for two seats have debated a broad range of important and divisive issues confronting Duarte.

And, in the process, the campaign itself has become an issue. One candidate, real estate agent Ginny Joyce, has raised $3,500 from friends, business associates and the owner of a bowling alley. Some opponents argue that Joyce has single-handedly ushered in a new and pernicious form of big-city politics. They say the money has allowed her to print slick campaign pamphlets and mailings, compared to their own mostly Xeroxed efforts.

Joyce scoffs at the suggestion, saying she is only trying to run a professional campaign worthy of Duarte.

Still, the candidates have focused less on personalities than on issues of leadership and the direction of their city.

“Duarte is being challenged in many ways,” said John Fasana, a candidate who helped lead the city’s successful fight against a waste-to-energy plant in adjacent Irwindale. “There’s no shortage of things to discuss. If anything, there may be too many issues.”

In the past year alone, Duarte’s hierarchy has undergone a great change. After many years of service, both the city attorney and the city manager announced their resignations. A month after the council named one of its own, James Coughlin, to be city attorney, council members inexplicably changed their mind and let Coughlin go. The city now faces a $1-million claim for damages and a possible lawsuit by Coughlin.

The effectiveness of the Chamber of Commerce has also been hurt by a succession of executive directors over the past five years. Without stability at the top, critics say, the chamber has been a weak link in the city’s effort to develop a strong commercial and retail base.

Then there’s the problem with leaks in the copper plumbing of more than 1,000 homes built in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The “pinhole leaks,” releasing small but steady amounts of water, have caused thousands of dollars’ damage to hundreds of homes.

At first, some developers paid for the repairs. But when it looked as if acidity in the water may have contributed to the problem, the developers refused to foot the bill. Fingers were pointed at California American Water Co., which supplies well water to Duarte. The city--after what residents charge were years of inaction--recently hired a consultant to determine whether faulty plumbing, the water itself or a combination of the two is causing the problem.

Debate Over Name

Finally, there is the protracted and, some say, ridiculous debate over a new name for the city. Some city leaders feel that “Duarte” doesn’t properly convey the ambiance of their community, built in “early California” Spanish style. They have suggested “Duarte Hills,” “Rancho Duarte” or the more grammatically correct “Rancho de Duarte.” The City Council can’t even agree on whether to place the whole matter in the hands of the voters.

Councilmen Ed Beranek and Mervin A. Money said their decision to not seek reelection this term was unrelated to the various problems confronting the city. Money, who has been a councilman for seven years, said he is stepping down because he wants to travel and improve his home. Beranek, who was appointed to the council in May, said his growing responsibilities as a partner in an accounting firm forced him to not seek reelection.

At a candidates’ forum Tuesday at a local senior citizens’ home, four of the candidates presented a strong, passionate view of their city. A fifth candidate did not attend.

During the forum and in later interviews, the candidates shared a perspective on all the major issues, although they sometimes differed over approach. Each criticized the city and, in particular, Mayor John Van Doren for dropping the ball on the pinhole leak problem. Each expressed the desire to preserve Duarte’s residential quality while creating an atmosphere for quality growth. Three of the four talked of the need for a new supermarket.

Noah E. Jameson, 53, a retired construction contractor and county employee who is now a computer programmer and consultant, introduces himself as a “hillbilly from Missouri.”

“I have a reputation for being plain-spoken and a cynic,” he says.

Some opponents counter that Jameson, who has lived in Duarte 13 years, is too negative about city affairs. Jameson responds that he is only trying to inject a healthy dose of realism into the campaign.

For instance, Jameson is a less-than-enthusiastic supporter of the Los Angeles Raiders’ move to Irwindale. While he welcomes a football stadium in a gravel pit once set aside for a waste-to-energy plant, he says he wants to disabuse residents of the notion that a stadium will bring an economic boom to Duarte.

“I don’t see us having super hotels on every corner,” he said. “Remember, the Raiders will only be playing 10 home games a year there.”

Traffic, Noise

Jameson said he is concerned about the traffic and noise associated with the stadium. “We are going to be disturbed when you load up the streets and have rock concerts and dirt-bike races. . . . But it might be worth it.”

Jameson favors the continued commercial and retail development of Huntington Drive, the city’s main thoroughfare. He says talk of a major supermarket coming to town is unrealistic because Duarte remains too small to attract one. He opposes any additional residential or condominium development on Huntington. He says the condemnation of homes to pave the way for redevelopment is a “very, very necessary evil sometimes.”

“You either expand or you deteriorate. To expand, you’ve got to play the developers’ game,” he said. “I’m not going to go in blindly and say, ‘Stop all development.’ But I will fight for the rights of property owners.”

Ginny Joyce, a 10-year resident, points to an extensive record of community involvement. She has served as vice president and director of the Chamber of Commerce and is a five-year member of the city’s Traffic and Safety Commission.

She was the only speaker to read from a prepared text at the candidates’ forum. When asked a question, she picked among a file of 3-by-5 cards for a typed response.

Joyce, 49, the mother of two, chuckles at the suggestion that she lacks spontaneity.

Being Prepared

“I’m trying to address all the issues, to make sure I don’t overlook anything,” she said. “It’s important to be prepared. I don’t think it takes away from the sincerity.”

Joyce also doesn’t apologize for the $3,480 in contributions she has raised to go along with the $3,531 she has loaned to herself. Her opponents have either decided against raising funds altogether or have raised only a few hundred dollars. They say a $500 contribution to Joyce from Columbia Bowl, a bowling alley in a city redevelopment zone, may raise conflict-of-interest questions if Joyce is elected to the council and must vote on a project involving the bowl.

“That contribution was given not because the owners expect any favors from me but because they believed in me,” Joyce said. “As for any conflict of interest, I would simply abstain from voting on anything affecting Columbia. I don’t see that as a big problem.”

Joyce has been outspoken on the need to find a solution to the pinhole leak problem. She believes it raises questions about the quality of the city’s water. A solution might be to build a filtration plant that would enable the city to pump water from the San Gabriel River instead of using well water, she suggests.

‘In a Crisis Now’

“We are at a crisis right now with regard to our water supply,” Joyce said. “But from all reports, we do have safe drinking water.

“I think the city is correct in waiting for the consultant’s report before deciding on a course of action.”

Joyce wants the city to rethink its arrangement with the Sheriff’s Department, which polices the city, and consider establishing its own police force.

She favors the continued development of Huntington Drive but without acquiring adjacent residential property.

“People think just because I’m a real estate broker, I’m pro-development,” she said. “But my job is not developing huge tracts of land but bringing families into Duarte to buy homes.”

John Fasana, 32, works as a project manager for Southern California Edison. He has lived in Duarte three years and is the father of three. Fasana became active in city affairs during the fight to beat back the waste-to-energy plant. He was a co-founder and president of Citizens’ Assn. for a Safe Environment, the group that led opposition to the plant.

Issue Still Important

Fasana said that even though the plant has been defeated for now, the issue of waste management remains important. Any solution to the problem, he said, should include recycling by residents and garbage companies.

“The waste-to-energy plant was foremost an air quality issue,” he said. “We can remove 65% to 70% of our trash through recycling without having to burn anything.”

Fasana disagrees with opponents who accuse him of being a single-issue candidate.

He said he favors the building of an auto row in the city as a way of raising revenues. “They will assure us the fiscal independence without being tied to the whims of Sacramento and Washington, D. C.”

Fasana supports the Raiders’ move to Irwindale but also does not believe that it will necessarily result in the construction of hotels in Duarte.

“We must work closely with Irwindale to take advantage of any development that comes from the stadium while making sure that traffic flows are managed,” he said.

Lino S. Paras, 41, is a gadfly who has a reputation for occasionally belaboring an issue from the podium at council meetings. Critics say Paras has used the council’s public input periods as a forum for his candidacy.

But Paras says that if he occasionally gets carried away, it is because he is passionate about his new home. The father of three, he moved to Duarte from Los Angeles in 1985. A native of the Philippines, Paras said he led an introverted life in the big city.

“When I came here, I was awakened,” he said. “I learned that there was much more to life than earning a buck and going home to read the newspaper.”

Paras, a corporate treasurer and controller of a Montebello-based industrial equipment manufacturing company, has led the fight to preserve Duarte’s old schoolhouse, built in 1909.

While describing himself as a preservationist, Paras supports continued development along Huntington Drive. He would like the strip to look like Los Angeles’ trendy Melrose Avenue.

Still, Paras is regarded by some as an unreasonable foe of development. His idea to gradually phase out the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency is one such example, his opponents say.

But Paras said there is a time for redevelopment and a time, which is soon approaching, when the agency simply exists to perpetuate itself.

“I am not anti-development,” he said. “I just want responsible growth.”

Paras has also made campaign expenditures an issue, proud that he will spend less than $350.

“Campaign expenditures have gotten out of hand,” he said. “It may scare off future qualified candidates who don’t have the financial resources.”

Much less is known about the stance of the fifth candidate, 52-year-old LeRoy F. Gabriel, a Duarte businessman. Gabriel, who did not attend Tuesday’s forum, has not taken as active a role as the other candidates. Repeated attempts to contact him were unsuccessful, and he was believed to be out of town on business.

In a statement issued at the time of his filing, Gabriel, a 21-year Duarte resident, supported planned commercial development on Huntington Drive. He also said the Sheriff’s Department needed to redouble its efforts to combat crime and drug problems.

“If the Sheriff’s Department would patrol all city streets regularly,” he said, “they could prevent many criminal problems before citizens are forced to go to City Hall.”