Redevelopment Issue Fires Council Race

In what has been a lively San Fernando City Council campaign, two incumbents are being challenged over the issues of redevelopment, housing and city planning.

Councilman Jess Margarito, who won an overwhelming victory in 1984, and Mayor James B. Hansen, appointed two years ago to fill a council seat, are supporting each other in Tuesday’s municipal election and are emphasizing their council records.

Beverly Di Tomaso, who was a leader in a successful city initiative campaign in 1986 but lost her first bid for a City Council seat, said she decided to run again so that voters will “find out the real facts about city government.” She has loosely aligned herself with San Fernando newcomer Paul Arnold, a two-year resident who acknowledges that he is an underdog.

All the candidates have been walking the precincts in an attempt to reach each of the city’s 6,018 registered voters. Margarito has had the most sophisticated campaign, with about 40 volunteers working for him.

“This is going to be a lot closer than most people think,” Margarito said this week. “It’s all going to come down to which candidates get the voters to the polls Tuesday.”

What’s surprising about Margarito’s prediction is that in 1984 he was the biggest vote-getter in a field of four candidates, with 42% of the vote. He became the first Latino council member in 18 years in a city with an 80% Latino population.

During his first four-year term, he has emerged as the town’s most outspoken Latino political leader, drawing his strongest support from residents of San Fernando’s oldest Latino neighborhood, the south-side barrio.

But Margarito feels his stronghold in the barrio may have weakened recently because of controversy over a city-initiated proposal to turn the area into a redevelopment zone.

City Could Condemn Homes

Residents loudly protested the idea at first, expressing fear that they could lose their homes through eminent domain, which is the city’s power to condemn property. A 30-member citizens’ committee is being organized to advise the council how to proceed with the redevelopment plan.

Weeks before the election, Margarito found himself in the uncomfortable position of having to explain complex issues of redevelopment to angry, confused constituents. He said the initial protests from loyal supporters came as a “very rude awakening.”

“I realized that people vote with their pocketbooks and self-interests,” he said. “I’ve had to go back and articulate to them what redevelopment is all about and remind them that I have been representing their self-interests for a long time.”

Although Margarito and Hansen voted to study setting up a redevelopment zone in the area, they have taken no position on whether they will support the idea in the end. The council members have said they will abide by the recommendations of the citizens’ advisory committee on how to proceed with the proposal.

Redevelopment Opposed

Di Tomaso, 54, who operates a mail-order business, has focused on her opponents’ connection with the redevelopment proposal in an effort to win votes in south-side precincts. She said those precincts are crucial if she is to be elected.

She has told voters that she is against redevelopment and its accompanying power of eminent domain. Instead, she said she favors using about $400,000 in existing city housing money for home-improvement programs.

“Right now the incumbents are saying to the people, ‘I’ll do whatever you want,’ ” Di Tomaso said. “I challenge them to take a stand. What I want people to know is that the council can overturn whatever the committee says.”

State law requires a two-thirds majority vote of a city council--in San Fernando’s case, the votes of four of its five members--to overturn a recommendation from a citizens’ advisory committee, said City Administrator Donald E. Penman.

Arnold, 32, a football coach at San Gabriel High School, has taken a more moderate stand on redevelopment. Like the incumbents, he said he would abide by the recommendation of the citizens’ committee.

Di Tomaso and Arnold have strongly criticized the council for what they say is poor code enforcement of the city’s property-maintenance ordinance. Both said that, if elected, they would push for hiring more code-enforcement officers.

“There are weeds, trash, abandoned vehicles all over the city. It is so visible, and yet we don’t see any dent in the problem,” Di Tomaso said. “I feel they are not responding to the people who live in this town.”

The challengers also say that the city’s general plan and zoning for the south side will lead to the loss of single-family homes because apartment complexes can be built in the area.

“It’s an open invitation to developers,” Di Tomaso said. “I favor single-family homes. But apartments bring big problems of crime, drugs and traffic.”

Hansen, 53, vice president of finance for a Carson liquor-distributing firm, contends that the challengers have “manufactured” the issue that city residents are discontented with the general plan.

“There is no one big huge dramatic thing out there that is really inflaming the people of this town,” Hansen said. While campaigning, he said, the biggest complaint he heard was that there has not been enough tree trimming in the city.

“I believe this is a united city,” he said at a candidates’ debate earlier this week. While he has been in office, he said, the City Council has approved development of a shopping center on the former San Fernando Airport property, begun construction of a new police station, hired two full-time code-enforcement officers and approved rehabilitation of a senior-citizens’ center.

Margarito has promoted the same record of council accomplishments. He also takes credit for organizing the first Neighborhood Watch group in the barrio.

In addition, he said, he will continue to look for creative ways to “formulate policy that will stabilize our neighborhoods and promote rehabilitation in older neighborhoods.”

Campaign Spending Varies

Hansen and Margarito have spent far more on their campaigns than Di Tomaso and Arnold.

In campaign disclosure statements, Hansen is listed as having spent $3,763, mostly on posters, campaign literature and mailers. He had received $966 in donations, all under $100--which means that state law does not require that their sources be reported. The remaining money has come out of his own pocket, he said.

Margarito, 40, a self-employed business consultant, has spent $4,245, most of it for printing. All of his campaign money has come from private donations, mostly from small-business owners in San Fernando.

Di Tomaso and Arnold have each spent less than $1,000 and have accepted donations of less than $100. They said their only campaign expenses have been for lawn placards and photocopying of typewritten flyers.

San Fernando city elections are held every two years. In 1990, three positions will be put before voters.