Varying Backgrounds, Similar Views in Cerritos

To find clear distinctions among the City Council contestants in the April 12 election, voters must look beyond the political brochures spilling out of mailboxes.

The candidates’ positions on the issues are much the same. Indeed, they often echo elections past, reflecting the self-satisfied prosperity of a community that perennially worries not about painful deficits or blight, but about getting a cable TV system.

When the nine contenders look at City Hall, they see either a soundly managed organization in need of little more than tinkering, or a chilly corporate structure more interested in image than humanity.

Yet, the candidates--ranging from a hair salon owner to a physician, and including trans-Pacific immigrants as well as natives of Southern California--have backgrounds that are considerably more diverse than their political promises.

Mayor Daniel Wong is the only incumbent in next month’s election for two council seats. Two-term Councilman Donald Knabe has decided to turn his attention to running for the state Senate rather than another term on the council.

The candidates have varying degrees of political experience. Wong has been a councilman since 1978, when he won a seat in a special election. Perry Barit and Sherman Kappe are planning commissioners hoping to take the next step in local politics. George Marsh was a councilman in neighboring Bellflower before moving to Cerritos in 1984.

Faith Michaels Rizzotto is making her political debut. Paul Bowlen and Alan Ulrich ran in the last council election, finishing in the top half of a field of 15. Bernard Einson and Chris Fuentes are running for office for the first time, although Fuentes has worked in many campaigns and both have been involved with the same local citizens group.

On the topic of city government, Einson and Fuentes have the tartest tongues.

At a recent candidates’ forum, Einson accused city leaders of having “fallen under the spell of out-of-town developers.” A 67-year-old businessman who was a member of the local Redevelopment Agency in its early years, Einson on another occasion complained that “the council has been so involved with the plans of developers that they’ve bypassed the needs of the people.”

He says the council needs to devote more attention to fostering programs for teen-agers, the elderly and children. He advocates increased sheriff patrols--Cerritos contracts with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department for law enforcement services--and wants to strengthen the anti-crime Neighborhood Watch program. And he argues that the occupants of City Hall have to become “human, caring, considerate.”

Fuentes, 27, sounds similar themes, condemning local politicians and commissioners who have accepted contributions from developers. “I just think it’s been a votes-for-sale mentality,” charged Fuentes, who regularly attends council meetings and, just as regularly, attacks council actions.

City Hall, he contends, is ruled by a philosophy of “image over substance” that compels it to spend thousands of dollars on a gazebo for the local auto mall while neglecting park equipment. The city should spend its ample sales tax income on such projects as the construction of a senior citizen and teen-age activity building in Towne Center, giving young people some place to go besides the mall, he says.

Like virtually every other candidate, Fuentes also says the city needs to acknowledge that it is not immune to the gang and drug problems that trouble less affluent communities.

“I want a gang commission,” says Fuentes, who works in political consulting and public relations but is devoting all of his time to campaigning. At latest count, the hefty candidate says he had shed about 40 pounds walking door-to-door in search of supporters.

Bare-Bones Budget

Despite a bare-bones campaign budget, Bowlen finished fifth among 15 in the last council election, and he expects to keep his spending to no more than $4,000 this time around. What he lacks in campaign mailers, he makes up for in name recognition. He has taught at Cerritos High School since it opened 17 years ago and coached local youth athletic teams for an even longer period. When the high school football team competes at home, it is Bowlen’s resonant voice that floats out of the loudspeaker, announcing the plays.

Rich as Cerritos is in parkland, Bowlen, 47, says youth teams are plagued by a shortage of playing fields, a situation the city needs to correct. The council also needs to work more closely with the ABC Unified School District board on youth issues, he says.

Bowlen joins other candidates in calling for the development of Towne Center, a 125-acre, city-owned vacant tract across from the Civic Center. But Bowlen is not necessarily committed to the current development plan, which calls for the construction of 20 office buildings, a hotel and a retail section. Citing vacancies in existing office and hotel complexes in the area, Bowlen suggests that several alternative plans be presented to residents for a public vote.

Although relatively new to the city, Marsh points to his political and business experience as ample credentials for the $590-a-month, four-year council post.

Real Estate Background

The former Bellflower councilman is executive vice president of Union Development Co. Inc., which owns and manages commercial, residential and industrial property, including some in Cerritos. He also holds financial interests in two other firms that deal in commercial or industrial real estate, and he is president of his own nonprofit corporation that gives financial assistance to students attending Christian colleges. He calls that enterprise G.I.G., for God, Idabelle (his wife) and George.

Marsh, 61, considers his real estate background a plus. “I think I have something to offer that other candidates don’t.”

Planning commissioner and architect Barit, 49, would create a youth advisory board of high school students and a community safety commission to advise the council on crime, youth and gang problems, which caught the city’s attention last year when a teen-age girl attending a birthday party was killed in a drive-by shooting.

Barit, a native of the Philippines who immigrated 20 years ago, says the city is complacent about local businesses and should pay more attention to improving the business climate. As a start, he says the city’s stringent sign restrictions need to be liberalized.

Having collected more than $24,000 in campaign contributions, Barit has one of the most ambitious fund-raising and spending agendas of the election. Among his contributors are several developers of local commercial property: Jovet Inc. of Beverly Hills, which developed the Cerritos Triangle shopping center; Krausz Enterprises of Burlingame, which owns a new office building, and the Troy Investment Fund of Newport Beach, which recently won city approval to build 57 townhouses.

No Link

“It won’t influence me in the future,” Barit says of the contributions. He added that although he voted on the Planning Commission for the townhouse project, there was no link to Troy’s $751 donation.

Wong, too, says he has no qualms about accepting campaign funds from developers. “I don’t think a $2,000 donation would make me change my vote, because I have integrity,” says Wong, a 46-year-old physician and Hong Kong native who maintains a fat campaign fund from one election to the next. He started this campaign season with $26,000, of which $2,000 came from Krausz. He says he voted for the Krausz office building because it was a worthy project.

After the 1986 passage of a City Charter amendment limiting council tenures, it was thought that Wong would be barred from seeking a third term this year. But legal questions arose about the amendment’s application to incumbents’ terms, and earlier this month a Superior Court judge ruled that Wong’s name could go on the ballot.

Wong dismisses those candidates who have complained that the council has not been sufficiently diligent in efforts to develop Towne Center or to bring cable TV to Cerritos, one of the few communities in the area still without a cable hookup.

“I can sleep well with the things I have done with the city,” Wong says.

40 Hour-a-Week Campaign

Planning Commissioner Kappe, who manages his own apartments in La Mirada and Bellflower, says he is spending 40 hours a week campaigning. Mildly critical of city efforts in such areas as Towne Center and cable TV, Kappe’s election flyers cover familiar themes. He favors the addition of another deputy and patrol car to the local sheriff’s unit, the creation of more sports and recreation programs, a school anti-gang force and a more lenient sign ordinance.

Kappe, 43, expects to spend about $10,000 on the election, as does Fuentes. Marsh has a $15,000 campaign budget. Ulrich says he plans to spend no more than $2,000; Einson, only a few thousand, and Rizzotto, less than $1,000.

Rizzotto, the 39-year-old owner of a La Palma hair salon, is running what she calls a “low-profile campaign” and is urging the creation some sort of municipal bus service as well as a municipal police force. Rizzotto says the Lakewood sheriff’s station serving Cerritos already “has as much as it can handle.”

Council members are not as in touch with residents as they should be, contends Ulrich, a United Parcel Service customer service agent who says he would spend at least a few hours a month making neighborhood rounds.

A weekend reserve police officer in La Palma, Ulrich, 38, says Cerritos should create a crime task force of residents and sheriff’s deputies and increase patrols. “Kids have taken over the parks. Drug dealings are going on all over the place,” he says.

Turning to more mundane matters, Ulrich proposes to give each household six overnight parking permits a year--so guests would not collect citations for leaving cars on the street. He also favors establishment of a city-run storage lot for recreational vehicles.