Council’s Critics Form Slate in San Marino

For the first time in civic leaders’ memories, a slate of three candidates is running in the April 12 election, campaigning almost entirely as critics of the city’s loss of almost $2 million in reserve funds last year.

The money the city says was illegally invested by a former city treasurer has become a rallying cry for Ben Austin, 70, a frequent council critic, who asked I. Leslie Cordell, 83, and John Duling, 72, to be his running mates.

The three other candidates for the three seats on the five-member council--Mayor Rosemary Simmons, 56; Eugene H. Dryden, 54, and W. Michael Johnson, 45--say they are running independently and support the city’s current leadership.

While decrying the loss of reserves, Simmons, Dryden and Johnson said San Marino has other problems to address, including traffic, parking and whether to open the city’s only park, Lacy Park, on Sundays. They all backed a 1986 tax for police, fire and paramedics that will be up for renewal in 1990. The three said they have no major differences.

Simmons is the only incumbent on the ballot. Councilmen Andrew Hallum and Ben Hammon are vacating their seats.

Councilman Paul Crowley, a longtime resident who has served on many civic boards, said he believes this is the first time that a slate of candidates has run for council. Several city officials agreed.

In a city of upper-income residents where campaigning is generally low-key and issues are usually few, the loss of reserve funds has been attacked mostly by Austin, the leader and most vocal member of the slate. A longtime opponent of new taxes, Austin called the loss “the biggest event in San Marino’s history” at a candidates forum in March.

The loss happened after Ray Wood, who was later fired as city treasurer, invested $2 million in city funds in high-risk securities two years ago. City officials said the investment violated regulations and was made without their knowledge.

The $2 million came from the city’s $7-million reserve fund. San Marino has joined other cities and agencies in suing the broker who made the investments and two brokerage firms that handled the accounts.

As he has done before other elections, Austin has published a newsletter that he said he will send to every San Marino voter before April 12. Its six pages are devoted almost entirely to examination and criticism of the lost investment.

Austin, who is listed on the ballot as a writer/publisher, was the most vocal opponent of two special property tax measures for schools that were defeated in recent years. He also led opposition in 1986 to the police, fire and paramedic measure, which was approved by 75% of the voters. Austin said he would oppose renewing the tax in 1990 and would propose a surtax on real estate sales so that newcomers would help pay for long-established city services.

Austin organized his slate, he said, because “I don’t want to spend my time on a City Council or anywhere else arguing with a bunch of dilettantes. I want to work on a program to oppose these constant tax increases.”

Cordell said at the candidates forum and in a later interview that he might advocate renewing the police, fire and paramedic measure if he thought it was necessary.

A self-employed accountant, Cordell said this is his first venture into city activities, although he has given financial support to Austin’s past political efforts.

Duling, an administrator for foreign students at East Los Angeles College, called himself “a super conservative who is sympathetic with Austin’s views” in an interview when he filed for election. He has been out of the country and did not appear at the only candidates forum.

Simmons, a civic volunteer, said that if the slate should win, “I can’t imagine what it would be like to have a divided council. We have always had a homogeneous group--not always agreeing, but able to work things out.”

Simmons complained that at the candidates forum, Austin and Cordell “talked only about money, and there is a lot more to governing a city than just money.”

She called her campaign “real traditional with no surprises. I’m standing on my record.”

Dryden, an engineer who has served on San Marino’s Planning Commission for 10 years, said he has several “areas of interest” that he would address as a councilman. They include “recovering the lost reserves and strengthening” the city’s investment policy, planning for population and ethnic changes, opening Lacy Park on Sundays, forming neighborhood parking committees, and renewing the special tax for police, fire and paramedics.

“I’m interested in a whole breadth of issues,” Dryden said.

Johnson, a lawyer and head of two real estate investment firms, said he approves of the city’s efforts to recover the lost investments through the legal system.

“The loss of money won’t happen again,” Johnson said, but as a member of the city’s parking committee he is concerned with other issues.

“We’re 75 years old and our infrastructure is getting old,” Johnson said. “We are going to have problems with things like sewers and trees and solid waste disposal. Traffic has increased 25% in the past 12 years, degrading the quality of life and creating parking problems. I want to preserve the integrity of San Marino, and tax moderately.”