Local Elections: The April 12 Showdown : Monterey Park Candidates Seek Accord After Turmoil

During a recent City Council meeting, charges of lies, scare tactics and dishonesty filled the room when the discussion centered on the coming municipal election.

With a mixture of wistfulness and bitterness, Councilman Barry L. Hatch, whose term expires in two years, said: “After this election, maybe we’ll have a couple of years of peace in this city. We deserve it.”

Since the last council election two years ago, three of the five council members have survived a recall effort. The police chief, city manager and city clerk quit. The council approved a building moratorium, and the voters approved controversial limits on building designs and stricter requirements for zoning changes. And the council fired the planning board and stripped the library board of its powers.

As much as anything else, the eight candidates seeking two seats on Tuesday agree that calming the city’s chaotic political scene is the top priority. But it’s one of the few points of agreement.

The candidates are fighting about development, the safety of the city’s water supply and the qualifications of planning commissioners.

They also have raised the issue of who among them can best unite the city’s ethnic groups.

In the last decade, rapid immigration has transformed Monterey Park. Half its population is now of Asian ancestry. Another quarter is Latino.

On Election Day, the Asian Pacific Voter Registration Project, a nonpartisan group that has opened an office in Monterey Park, will conduct exit polls in an attempt to determine voting patterns. Project officials say Asian-Pacifics account for one-third of the city’s voters.

The candidates, in the order they appear on the ballot, are George Ristic, Frank J. Arcuri, Marie T. Purvis, incumbent Cam Briglio, Fred Balderrama, Betty Couch, Judy Chu and Victoria Wu.

Councilman G. Monty Manibog is not seeking reelection to the council but is running for city treasurer.

Briglio, 55, first elected four years ago, originally became involved in politics by supporting the Proposition 13 property-tax initiative.

‘Done a Good Job’

“The people should reelect me because I’ve done a good job,” Briglio said, contending that he has fulfilled his campaign promises--to help repeal the city’s utility tax and to push for closing the Operating Industries Inc. landfill.

An attempt to oust him and two other council members last year failed when recall advocates couldn’t collect enough signatures.

Briglio, a sales and service technician for a pest control company, said: “I’ve always protected the little people, no matter what nationality they were.”

In actions and speech, Briglio has become known for his rough-and-ready approach. He has a gun permit, and in 1986 he shot at one of two robbers in the Mei Tze restaurant, frightening the bandits away and shattering a fish tank.

In January, Briglio apologized to city volunteer Jerry Lemire after calling him a “son of a bitch” during a council meeting. Briglio said he was upset because he felt that Lemire, who operates the camera for live television coverage of council meetings, was trying to show him in a bad light.

‘Wrong Word’

“I took a fit, and I guess I used the wrong word,” Briglio said.

Last year, Lemire’s wife, Pauline, quit as city clerk in the middle of one council meeting chaired by Briglio, who was then mayor, saying the council hadn’t given her adequate support.

Chu, 34, is midway through a four-year term as a trustee for the Garvey Unified School District, which includes Monterey Park, Rosemead and San Gabriel.

“I think our city is very divided,” she said. “I would like to find a way of healing the wounds and trying to bring us together.”

‘I’m the Candidate’

Although Chu’s husband, Michael Eng, actively supported the movement to recall Briglio, Hatch and Councilwoman Patricia Reichenberger, she said that wouldn’t affect her ability to reach agreement with those who differ with her. “I’m the candidate,” she said, “not my husband.”

Chu, who has a doctorate in psychology, said: “A lot of the city is fed up with what they see going on at the council meetings. I can get down to business . . . and deal with the issue at hand.”

An associate professor of sociology at California State University, Los Angeles, she also counsels disabled students at Los Angeles City College.

Chu, who was born in Los Angeles and whose mother was born in China, said Monterey Park needs to do more to help newly arrived immigrants adjust. The city also should organize round-table discussions among representatives of the community’s diverse elements, she said.

‘Bridge the Gap’

Chu concluded: “The thing I can offer to people is my ability to bridge the gap between different cultures.”

Balderrama, 36, owner and operator of MPR Auto and Truck Repair in Monterey Park, is on the Chamber of Commerce’s board of directors. This is the first time he has sought public office.

“You’ve got to know what it takes to be a businessman” to effectively run the city, Balderrama said. Too many city officials and many of the council candidates “don’t know what’s a good and what’s a bad deal,” he said. “They have no positive agenda for letting the city go forward.

“During the last two years, there’s been a real straight-out attack on Asian businessmen,” Balderrama said, pointing to criticism of insurance agent Stephen Tan, whom Mayor Christopher Houseman appointed last month to the Planning Commission. Tan is “considered Mr. Monterey Park of the Asian community,” Balderrama said, “yet people slander him like crazy.”

Business Partner

The criticism of Tan, one of Balderrama’s partners in the auto and truck repair business, stems in part from Tan’s support of the recall campaign last year, he said.

Balderrama said he decided to run when Manibog, who is of Filipino ancestry and the only Asian on the council, announced that he wasn’t seeking reelection.

While Balderrama said he isn’t emphasizing that he is the only Latino running, he added that he is proud of his heritage.

Couch, 43, said she first became active in local politics by fighting developers in her neighborhood, Sequoia Park, in the early 1970s. In 1976 she helped her husband, Harry, in an unsuccessful bid for Congress. Two years later, she helped him win a City Council seat. Soon after that, she was campaign manager for Irv Gillman, who served briefly on the council. Harry Couch and Gillman lost their reelection bids.

Active in RAMP

She helped form the Residents Assn. of Monterey Park (RAMP) and was active in RAMP’s effort to curb development, especially of condominiums.

Couch and her family worked for the election of Houseman, Hatch and Reichenberger two years ago.

This year, the association has endorsed Couch and Ristic. The endorsement and two RAMP newsletters have been the focus of much debate at recent council meetings. Houseman in particular has been critical of what he calls lies and innuendoes being disseminated by his former political colleagues.

Last week, Houseman, Briglio and Manibog criticized Couch for what they called “scare tactics” in her campaign literature, especially for its references to the city being “forced to purchase poor-quality water.” The city has sent out letters to all residents saying the local water is safe despite the “misinformation.”

Couch, a parks and recreation commissioner, said she didn’t intend to scare anyone or suggest that residents are harming themselves by drinking the water.

On Review Board

Purvis, 47, who owns and operates a framing shop and gallery in Monterey Park, is a former Chamber of Commerce president and has served on the city’s Architectural Review Board since 1984.

She said her community involvement makes her the best candidate. “No one owns me in this town.”

In an emotional moment at a recent council meeting, Purvis disputed a claim in a campaign newsletter distributed by the Residents Assn. of Monterey Park that she “was silent at the time of the recall.”

She said RAMP members knew she had opposed the recall yet published the inaccuracy to damage her candidacy. The association later ran a correction in its newsletter.

RAMP will “kill this town if they continue to hate,” Purvis said. She said she worries that RAMP opposition will keep city officials from seeing “a quality piece of development when it comes before them.”

‘I Comprehend’

Purvis said she knows how to be fair. “I listen and I comprehend when people have different opinions from mine.”

Ristic, 57, a member of the Planning Commission, is making his first bid for elective office.

In recent weeks he has been severely criticized by Manibog during council meetings. The councilman has questioned Ristic’s motives and abilities and demanded that he resign from the commission.

Ristic said of Manibog: “It’s pretty easy to blame someone else for your own shortcomings.” He added that “the circus atmosphere has to stop” at council meetings.

Politically Aligned

Ristic said he would provide a unifying force because he is politically aligned with Hatch and Reichenberger. Like Couch, he campaigned vigorously against the recall attempt.

Ristic retired in 1986 after 31 years with the Montebello Unified School District. Before that, he was an assistant principal at Bell Gardens Intermediate School, where Hatch teaches social studies.

As for development, Ristic said: “You can’t say no to all things. But I want to be in a position (to ensure that) we don’t compromise this new general (zoning) plan.”

Arcuri, 47, said his role in the 1985 campaign to make English the city’s official language is an example of the kind of leadership he would give if elected. In that unsuccessful campaign, Arcuri worked with Hatch and Reichenberger, who later broke with him.

Publishes Newsletter

Arcuri, who finished last in the 1986 council race, operates his own photography business. For the last three years, he has published a monthly newspaper, which he said has a circulation of 3,000. It features stories critical of incumbent Monterey Park officials.

Arcuri has been arrested twice after refusing to obey the mayor’s orders to leave the City Council chambers quietly after outbursts during council meetings.

After the first arrest, in April, 1986, he was found guilty on misdemeanor charges of disturbing a public meeting, using force and violence and resisting arrest. He is appealing. In February, he was charged with disturbing a public meeting, battery on a police officer and resisting arrest. That case is pending.

Arcuri also has been involved in legal disputes with Manibog and Briglio. “I’m a doer, not a talker,” he said.

Of his arrests, he said: “It’s the price I had to pay for my activism.”

‘Peacemaker’ Signs

Wu, 48, is running for the council a second time. In 1984, she finished next to last in a field of nine.

“If I had been elected in 1984, they wouldn’t have had the recall,” said Wu, whose campaign signs proclaim her as the “peacemaker.”

Because she grew up in Hong Kong but came as an adult to America, Wu said, she understands the problems faced by immigrants.

Wu is an acupuncturist with offices in Alhambra. In her campaign statement, which will appear on the ballot, she says: “I will help to resolve people’s complaints and problems and not become a part of” the problems.

She said the city needs public day care facilities and nutritional programs for children and their families.

In the race for city treasurer, Manibog, a councilman for 12 years, faces Louise Davis, also a former council member. George Ige, who held the treasurer’s post for the last eight years, didn’t seek reelection.

Four candidates--David M. Barron, Raul S. Barbosa, Bill Feliz and John R. Gerlach--are running for city clerk.