Voters to Decide on Candidates, Issues in 20 Area Cities

Twenty cities in Southeast Los Angeles County will hold municipal elections Tuesday, led by Long Beach, which will choose its first full-time mayor in more than 75 years.

Long Beach, the state’s fifth-largest city, will take the first step toward revamping the structure of both its city government and that of the unified school district. For the first time since 1912, voters will directly cast ballots for a mayor while the Long Beach Unified School District switches to single-member district elections.

The city has had a part-time mayor, a City Council member chosen by his or her colleagues. But two years ago, voters agreed to elect the mayor directly and pay a salary of $67,500 a year. If nobody gets a majority Tuesday, there will be a runoff between the top two contenders in June.

The new mayor will not have a vote in the nine-member City Council. And although the position carries veto power, mayoral vetoes can be overridden by a simple majority in most cases. With no vote and a feeble veto, the position has been criticized as weak. But candidates say the mayor’s real power will come in the leadership the office provides.

In the Long Beach Unified School District, 25 candidates are competing for school board seats in five districts for the first time since the 1986 passage of Proposition T instituted district elections. Previously, school board members were elected citywide.

Because four of the five current board members live in the same area, the election is sure to result in a new majority on the board with no more than two incumbents remaining in office.

The race has been characterized by higher-than-usual spending, especially by the Teachers Assn. of Long Beach, which has endorsed five candidates and played an active role in each of their campaigns.

Three City Council seats are also at stake, with one guaranteed new member. Councilman Edd Tuttle’s decision not to seek reelection has drawn a field of seven candidates in District 8. There are also challengers to incumbents Wallace Edgerton in District 2 and Tom Clark in District 4.

In Cerritos, where incumbents have traditionally maintained a strong hold on the council, Donald Knabe’s decision not to run for reelection has created an opening that will bring a new face to a council of familiar ones. Mayor Daniel Wong is pursuing his third term, telling voters that if they like their city, they should keep him in office for more of the same. With a few exceptions, the eight challengers aren’t promising any radical changes either, but instead say they want to build on the city’s accomplishments.

12 Candidates

Last fall’s earthquake in Whittier has shaken loose the biggest field of City Council candidates since 1972, as two incumbents and 10 challengers battle for three seats. How to rebuild the earthquake-devastated Uptown area is the top issue, along with the level at which the city will continue to fund local social-service groups in light of an earthquake-related decline in sales tax revenues. Many council candidates are also vowing to pursue the annexation of Los Angeles County land in west Whittier, which would add about 15,000 residents to the city.

Mobile home rent stabilization is the key issue in Bellflower. Residents will vote on a ballot measure that would limit yearly rent increases at the city’s 45 mobile home parks to 75% of the rise in the consumer price index or 7% of the existing rent, whichever is lower. The issue has permeated the City Council race, where seven candidates are vying for two seats.

A ballot measure for a city bed tax has divided candidates for three Commerce City Council seats. Incorporated in 1960, Commerce bills itself as a model city that is friendly to business and provides many services to its 12,000 residents without levying city property taxes. The ballot measure, also to be decided Tuesday, would impose an 8% tax on the use of hotel rooms in the city.

Housing Boom Issue

Signal Hill’s election could change how the small oil town’s five-member council uses its redevelopment money and what restrictions it places on new residential development. Three City Council members are squaring off against three former council members and a fourth challenger for the at-large seats. The incumbents have used money from the city’s Redevelopment Agency to support attracting and keeping large companies that enhance the city’s sales tax base. But the challengers say the city has subsidized private businesses with money that they say should be spent on improvements such as gutters and curbs.

Although a recent housing boom was expected to be the biggest issue in Paramount--where two incumbents are being challenged by three other candidates--a measure on the ballot asking for a business license tax on the city’s lone petroleum refinery is generating the most money in the contest. The measure would levy a tax of six cents per barrel on products produced by the Paramount Petroleum Refinery. The tax would raise as much as $650,000 yearly, which would be used to help finance a possible sheriff’s substation and a satellite municipal court in the city.

A committee called Concerned Citizens Against Measure B, with headquarters in Costa Mesa, has raised more than $50,000 to defeat the tax proposal. Contributions have come from several oil industry giants, including Union Oil Co. of America, Mobil Oil Corp., Chevron Corp. and Shell Oil Co.

In Huntington Park, an election battle has erupted over the city’s redevelopment program and the lack of Latino representation on the City Council. Councilmen Thomas E. Jackson and Jack W. Parks promise continued support of what they say is the largely successful redevelopment of a city that was once labeled a suburban disaster area. But challengers Raul R. Perez and Raul A. Aragon note the Redevelopment Agency has not produced as much income as anticipated and the city was forced to eliminate 13 positions last year to compensate for the shortfall.

Perez and Aragon also said the council--which now is all Anglo--needs Spanish-speaking Latino members who can more effectively communicate with the city’s Latinos. The city of 51,000 is more than 80% Latino. Jackson and Parks maintain they do not have to be Latino to properly represent their constituency.

Municipal elections are also being held in Artesia, Bell, Cudahy, Hawaiian Gardens, La Habra Heights, Lakewood, La Mirada, Maywood, Norwalk, Pico Rivera, Santa Fe Springs, South Gate.