Bellflower Official Splits With Mayor on Redevelopment, Quits

BELLFLOWER — After Mayor Mike Brassard surprised the City Council recently when he suggested establishing a redevelopment agency, he said his stance might cost him political support, but he did not think his appointee to the Human Services Commission would resign because of it.

Eugene Bird, 74, who was appointed to the commission by Brassard in 1984, sent the councilman a resignation letter stating that “I can no longer support your views on redevelopment and I cannot support you for reelection as councilman.”

At a council meeting last month, Brassard suggested putting a measure on the April ballot to establish a redevelopment agency.

To many people in Bellflower, redevelopment became a dead issue when a similar ordinance was defeated in 1984. Brassard and Bird both supported an effort to defeat that measure.

Bird said he was “shocked and disappointed” that Brassard would change his position on redevelopment and said that he would support former mayor James Earle Christo, who plans to run for one of two City Council seats up for grabs in April.

“I anticipated he would support Mr. Christo,” said Brassard, whose term expires in April. “But I really didn’t think he’d resign. I probably should have talked to him before so it wouldn’t have been such a shock.”

Brassard has not announced his intent to seek reelection.