Local News in Brief : Dispute Over Lawndale Hirings

Mayor Sarann Kruse is at odds with three political allies on the Lawndale City Council over appointments to city commissions and staff.

Kruse accused Councilmen Larry Rudolph, Harold E. Hofmann and Dan McKenzie of favoritism and “19th-Century machine politics” in their decision at the May 5 council meeting, when she was out of town, to hire Lawndale resident Nancy McKee to head the city’s Neighborhood Watch program.

Kruse said McKee does not meet advertised requirements for the $21,528-a-year job but was hired because she was “on the right political bandwagon.” McKee could not be reached for comment on Friday. Her husband, Bruce, is Rudolph’s appointee to the Planning Commission.

Rudolph, meanwhile, was absent from the meeting last week but issued a statement threatening to oppose any appointments from among Kruse’s supporters who were named on what he called a “false and misleading” mailer sent out before the municipal elections last month.

Kruse and Councilwoman Carol Norman ignored his threat. Kruse appointed cable television committee member Pam Sturgeon to the Planning Commission, and Norman reappointed 10-year commission member Robert Cerny. Sturgeon and Cerny were listed as signatories on the mailer.

To the city’s Parks, Recreation and Social Services Commission, Kruse appointed Tina Zarro, a homemaker who unsuccessfully sought election to the council April 12; Norman appointed Phyllis Gillam, president of the Lawndale Little League Auxiliary.

Rudolph, Hofmann and McKenzie made their appointments to the two commissions on May 5. Kruse and Norman made their appointments last week because they missed the May 5 meeting.