6 Vie to Succeed Outgoing Mayor on Council : 2 Seats Are Up in Norwalk, but 1 Is in the Spotlight

Two council slots will be filled in next month’s city election, but it is one seat, vacated by outgoing Mayor Margaret (Peg) Nelson, that is receiving most of the attention.

The six men aspiring to the council are not campaigning against veteran incumbent Robert E. White, who is seeking his sixth term. They want to be Nelson’s successor, and for the most part they are shunning sharp attacks on local leadership.

A councilman for 20 years, White is the panel’s senior member. Although he has picked up the endorsement of only one other incumbent, Councilman Marcial (Rod) Rodriguez, White’s record has been virtually ignored by his fellow contenders.

Those who would take on the $690-a-month, four-year council post offer no radical prescriptions for Norwalk government. The platforms of Ralph Pontius, Charles (Chuck) Belcher, Mike Mendez, John Echeveste, James Sweet, and Louis (Lou) Krebs nonetheless reflect a varying emphasis.

Mendez, 41, assistant recreation director for Santa Fe Springs, says Norwalk needs anti-gang counselors to work with youth and a community center for teen-agers and the elderly. He also advocates efforts to improve the appearance of local property in this predominantly working class city, indicating he would rely on voluntary programs to encourage maintenance.

Saying that he is “sort of disenchanted with redevelopment,” Sweet, 58, contends the city’s redevelopment projects sometimes seem to be driven more by the needs of developers than the needs of residents. He cited as an example commercial strip centers that have risen under the aegis of the council--which doubles as the Redevelopment Agency--only to remain partially empty.

A part-time sales analyst for McDonnell Douglas Corp. who is also involved in three local businesses, Sweet complains that redevelopment is driving up local commercial rents to a painful point. To counter that, he says developers could possibly be required to absorb part of any rent increases for a certain period after completion of a redevelopment project.

Sweet, who served on the Planning Commission from 1982 to 1986, says he disagrees with the density reductions recently approved for some residential areas. Such downzoning penalizes property owners, he explained.

Belcher, a 44-year-old freight deliveryman who also works as an insurance agent and a private security guard, contends that voters don’t feel adequately represented by the council. When residents show up at council meetings to complain about local matters, they are often ignored, Belcher says. Commenting that “people want their freedom on their property as much as possible,” he argues the council should be more willing, on a case by case basis, to exempt residents from local ordinances, such as those dealing with sidewalk parking.

On other matters, Belcher, who ran for council seats in 1982 and 1984, says City Hall should encourage development of a regional shopping mall, subsidize commercial rents for small businessmen in redevelopment areas and expand social programs for senior citizens.

Pontius, 60, has tried twice before to gain a place on the council, each time finishing just behind the winners. A local print shop owner who has been a planning commissioner for the past 10 years, Pontius complains that developers are dictating what is built in redevelopment zones because the city lacks a strong redevelopment plan.

The council’s recent use of reserve funds also raises objections from Pontius, who says the council should instead cut spending. “We have to face the fact that there is a bottom to the barrel,” he said. Like Mendez, Pontius talks of improving property maintenance, but he would go a step further and establish fines for recalcitrant property owners.

Support Defended

Although Pontius has been criticized by community watchdog Walter Ed White for accepting and publicizing the endorsement of former city administrator William H. Kraus, Pontius defended Kraus’ support.

“He accomplished and did many good things for this community,” Pontius said of Kraus, who last year pleaded guilty to a federal mail fraud charge stemming from his involvement in what prosecutors characterized as a multimillion-dollar land-fraud scheme unrelated to his city job. The charge was one of 23 fraud counts filed against Kraus and seven other men in 1985, nearly two years after he resigned under fire from the city administrator’s post. He is awaiting sentencing.

A former reporter and editor for the weekly Herald American who switched to advertising 16 years ago, Echeveste is an account executive for The News Tribune in Norwalk. Like Belcher, he says the city needs to develop a regional shopping center to bolster sales tax revenue. Although he is also concerned about the proliferation of small strip centers, he said he is unsure what should be done to halt their spread.

Krebs, a 42-year-old machine repairman for a roofing company, is another contestant who has tried before to gain a seat on the council, in the 1984 and 1986 elections. He has been a member of the Blue Ribbon Committee, a council advisory group, for the past four years, and some of his platform planks grow out of his experience with that panel.

He says he would pursue the committee’s interest in developing trash disposal alternatives for Norwalk, which sends its waste to landfills that grow fuller and more expensive by the year. At the very least, Krebs says, the city should establish a recycling/transfer station to reduce the quantity of local waste and compact it for long-distance shipment or use as fuel. It would be even better, he continued, to construct a local waste-to-energy plant that would burn the garbage.

Turning to social issues, Krebs supports the expansion of programs for the elderly, and says the Sheriff’s Department should become more involved with the community to deter crime and improve relations with youth.

White, a 68-year-old retired physical education teacher who once played professional baseball, dismissed Pontius’ questions about spending reserve funds. “There’s nothing wrong with dipping in and doing things you have to do,” he said, adding that it was preferable to authorizing new bonds.

In his campaign statements, White cites the council’s recent efforts to improve the social service center, his interest in revitalizing the Paddison Square shopping center and in building a community center. While quipping that the community center has been one of his campaign promises for the past 20 years, White predicted a site could be picked within the next year. He was less certain about Paddison Square, acknowledging that any rehabilitation project is “on the back burner.”

With nearly $12,000 in his campaign fund as of the end of last month, White will likely be among the election’s top spenders. Several of his contributions come from companies that do business with the city or are involved in local developments. For example, White received $1,000 from Wurtzel & Fox Investment Co., a Los Angeles firm that last year won council approval to build a 246-unit apartment complex on a redevelopment parcel.

The campaign funds of other candidates also include donations from companies with business ties to the city. Pontius, who had amassed $15,000, accepted $600 from Floyd B. Jackson, whose family owns a city-franchised trash collection company; $500 from Norwalk Auto Auction, which is leasing city land with an option to buy; $653 in cash and non-monetary contributions from the owner of Yellens Plumbing, which does work for the city; $300 from the owner of Imperial Paving, which has done repaving work for the city, and $100 from the owner of Mundy Electric, which has also done work for the city.

Mendez, who said he hopes to raise at least $15,000, received $300 from another city-franchised trash disposal firm, Consolidated Disposal. And Echeveste, who anticipates spending no more than $8,000, took $500 each from the Auto Auction and Seven Fortunes Enterprises, a company that is developing a hotel complex in the city.

All of the candidates vowed such contributions would never influence their votes. “It doesn’t bother me. I’ve been doing it for 20 years,” said White, adding that he could not recall ever having abstained from a vote involving a political donor. “I don’t believe there’s a need to.”

Belcher and Sweet said they plan to spend only a few thousand dollars, and Krebs anticipates spending no more than $1,000.