ELECTIONS ’88 ORANGE COUNTY : LOS ALAMITOS MUNICIPAL ELECTION : 2 Council Seats, April Elections, Hike in Business Tax on Ballot

Los Alamitos voters go to the polls Tuesday to elect two City Council members, vote on a proposal to increase the city’s business license tax by 50% and decide whether this will be the last city election to be held in month of April.

Ron Bates and Marianne Stiles are challenging incumbent Councilmen Paul Bernal and Charles E. Sylvia for two seats on the City Council.

Los Alamitos and San Juan Capistrano are the only two cities in Orange County to hold city elections in April. Seal Beach holds its municipal election in March.

If the Los Alamitos measure passes, city elections will be consolidated with county, state and national elections in June and November.

City Survey

The City Council voted to include the election measure on the ballot after a city survey conducted 18 months ago showed residents 6 to 1 in favor of changing the election date, said Michael Graziano, the city manager/city clerk.

“On the strength of that (survey), the council voted to put it on the ballot,” he said.

In a statement that appears on the sample ballot, the City Council argues in favor of the initiative, contending that consolidating the city’s election with other elections would save Los Alamitos money and bring more voters to the polls.

“Taxpayers want to save as much as they can; every penny saved is a penny earned,” Bernal said.

Opponents, however, are skeptical that the consolidation will cost less. “The precinct workers cost the same. The ballots cost the same . . . everything’s the same,” Stiles said. “The only difference is the county regulates the system.”

Stiles agreed that June and November elections may bring out more voters but said they may be the type who are not familiar with city issues.

Graziano, who said he has taken a “neutral” position on the matter, estimated that this year’s election will cost the city $8,000 and that the county could do it for $4,000.

Cities under general law--those established under state laws set aside for cities--need only to pass a council resolution to consolidate their election dates, said Rosalyn Lever, assistant registrar of voters for Orange County.

But election dates for charter cities such as Los Alamitos are included in the city charter and can be changed only by voter initiative, she said. If the measure passes, the county will take over from the city all of the basic operations involved in running an election, Lever said, including printing the ballots, monitoring polling places and counting the vote.

If voters approve the measure, Los Alamitos’ next city election will be November, 1990, Graziano said.

The business license tax measure would increase taxes 50% in each of the next two years, then 5% a year in subsequent years. The tax is determined by the number of employees. For example, the current annual tax for a business with up to three employees is $50; for 100 or more employees it’s $500.

The business tax increase was first proposed to members of the Los Alamitos Chamber of Commerce in April, 1987, said Gerard Goedhart, assistant city manager. About 340 of the city’s 1,300 businesses belong to the chamber.

No Phone Calls

Lori Fast, executive director of the chamber, said she believes the business tax proposal went over well with the membership because the chamber “got absolutely no phone calls” when it described the tax increase in its newsletter and asked for comment. Asked whether she thought the silence was due to approval of the tax or to the apathy of members, Fast said, “Probably a little of both.”

She said she did not know how non-members feel about the tax, but she said it was publicized on the city cable television station and in the city’s weekly newspaper. “They’ve had every opportunity to come before the City Council to complain about it,” she said.

Fast said many owners of businesses located in Los Alamitos live outside the city and will not be eligible to vote. “I think it’s unfortunate that the people who this is affecting are not voting, but that’s the way it is,” she said.

Goedhart said the city had not had a business tax increase since 1977 and that it needed one because of the “general inflation rate.”

This year’s City Council race has lacked the fire of the 1984 campaign when Bernal and Sylvia faced heated challenges. Except for Stiles, the candidates say that all is well with the city and that there are no controversial issues.

“I don’t think there’s any issues, to be honest. . . . Our city’s doing well and people are happy,” said Bernal, who says that the city is financially solvent and that residents are getting services.

Bates, who said his resignation as Anaheim city manager has nothing to do with his City Council campaign, said the two incumbents have “done a reasonably good job” and that he is running for the council primarily to help the city solve what he sees as three pressing problems.

The first problem, Bates said, is the purchase of Los Alamitos Race Course and Golf Course in neighboring Cypress by the Hollywood Park Real Estate Investment Trust, a Los Angeles-based real estate company connected with the Hollywood Park race track in Inglewood, for an as yet unannounced project.

“I think the potential for traffic congestion in the city of Los Alamitos (from the project) is phenomenal,” he said. “We need to be willing to work with the city of Cypress hand in hand.”

He said he is also concerned with the conversion of single-family homes in Los Alamitos to multifamily dwellings. He said conversions often result in lots containing more family units than they were designed to hold, which in turn leads to overcrowding, higher crime rates and a disproportionate use of public services.

Bates says he would also like to improve the working relationship between the city and the Los Alamitos Unified School District to help develop a child-care facility and create drug education programs.

In contrast, Stiles has been sharply critical of the incumbents. In particular, she says they sit on too many outside commissions and engage in too many extracurricular activities to effectively carry out their council duties.

“If you work 40 hours a week, nighttime travel (to commission meetings) is a hardship, and they both work 40 hours a week,” she said.

Bernal sits on the board of the Orange County League of Cities and the Orange County Vector Control Board, which oversees the agency charged with the control of mosquitoes, rats and other disease-carrying pests. Both of those boards meet once a month, he said.

“To be representative of the city of Los Alamitos, you can’t stay within the city limits,” Bernal said. “You have to go out and meet with the respective people.”

Sylvia serves on the board of the Orange County Sanitation District and is an alternate member of the Orange County Airport Land Use Commission. He also is involved in a number of local activities, including the Los Alamitos Youth Center Inc. and the booster club at Los Alamitos High School. And he is a director of the Los Alamitos Pony League, which organizes baseball games for 13- and 14-year-olds.