Rolling Hills Recall Bid Targets Entire Council

The Rolling Hills Estates recall election--the first in city history--is a bare-knuckle affair pitting a veteran city councilman who has a blue-ribbon community pedigree against a group bent on incrementally replacing all five council members on grounds they have held office too long.

Councilman Jerome Belsky, 70, the 12-year council veteran facing recall in Proposition GG on Tuesday, contends he is the target of people he does not know for reasons that are not proper grounds for recall. A second measure, Proposition HH, asks voters how they want Belsky’s seat filled--by appointment or special election--if he is ousted.

Recall committee leader Paul E. Bradley Sr., 56, claims Belsky maintains a “dictatorship” over the 5-member council and intimidates people who appear before the council “to keep them from saying what they want to say.”

Among the other allegations raised against Belsky are that he has invested in a local bank with other council members, raising the possibility of a conflict of interest, and led the council in opposing residents’ efforts to have the city buy the closed Dapplegray Intermediate School.

Belsky denies the charges, and says the recall is ill-conceived.

“Recall should be limited to actions against people who have done criminal acts of malfeasance,” said Belsky, whose term expires next year. “I was elected 12 years ago after 4 years on the Planning Commission. I’ve been a resident since 1961 and I was (Palos Verdes Peninsula) Chamber of Commerce and Rotary Club Citizen of the Year in 1985. This shows there must be recognition for my service to the community.”

The three council members who have endorsed Belsky call the accusations against him without merit.

The bitter campaign has been marked by personal attacks, charges of lying and a libel suit filed by Belsky against the five who initiated the recall--Bradley, Sharon Dunfee, Joyce E. Barbour, C. Elaine McNulty, and Alexander M. Shemet, who was a councilman from 1966 to 1974.

Bradley, who said he is the primary mover in the recall effort and personally collected “65 to 75%” of the signatures on recall petitions, said Belsky is the first target in a plan to replace the entire City Council. These council members have “been in office too long,” he said.

“They get to a position that they feel it’s their city, they own the city, they rule the city,” he said. “They forget they work for the people.” Bradley favors an 8-year limit on council service.

Councilwoman Nell Mirels has served since 1972 and has the longest council tenure, followed by Councilman Peter Weber, in office since 1974. Belsky has been in office since 1976, and council members Hugh Muller and Warren Schwarzmann since 1978.

Bradley said that if Belsky is recalled, “I’m hoping it will send a message” and the other council members “will step down automatically.”

Belsky, who is stressing his record of service and his support by other officials in his bid to keep his seat, said he was “somewhat surprised” that the recall committee got enough signatures--1,499--to get the recall on the ballot. He said he is not being “complacent” about the recall threat.

He characterizes himself as a man who has “continuously volunteered” time and energy to the city, saying that the five who are attempting to remove him have not.

Countering, Bradley said he has attended 30 council meetings since 1983 and is active in the homeowner association in the Empty Saddle area where he lives.

Criticism of Suit

Bradley has accused Belsky of “trying to scare the people who wish to recall him” with the libel suit, which is pending in Torrance Superior Court.

Belsky was unsuccessful in his attempt to get the court to remove an allegation from recall petitions that he has “tainted” the council’s image through improper business dealings in the city with other council members.

Superior Court Judge J. Gary Hastings 3 weeks ago ruled that the allegation is a constitutionally protected opinion advanced as part of an election campaign. But he held that there are grounds for a libel suit over other statements distributed during the recall.

Among them are flyers stating that Belsky, who owns a Harbor City plating and sheet metal fabricating company, was criminally charged 4 years ago with 74 counts of illegally dumping toxic waste and served a 3-year probation.

Belsky objects, saying the flyers misrepresent the case by omission. Most of the charges were dropped after his company pleaded no contest to 8 of the 74 counts, paid a $30,000 fine and received 36 months probation. The district attorney’s office said there was no evidence the dumping was intentional.

Belsky said the purpose of the suit is not to stop the recall effort but to eliminate false and defamatory statements. “I’ve had my reputation scarred by these people,” he said. “This is a campaign of personal vilification and attack on me, my office and my character.”

‘Gutter Politics’

Belsky calls the attacks “gutter politics.”

The veteran councilman said he has been endorsed by about 200 people, including Rep. Daniel E. Lungren (R-Long Beach), state Sen. Robert G. Beverly (R-Manhattan Beach), state Assemblyman Gerald N. Felando (R-San Pedro), council members Mirels, Muller and Schwarzmann, and most council members from Rancho Palos Verdes, Rolling Hills and Palos Verdes Estates.

Councilman Weber, while saying he doesn’t think “recall is the way to go,” said he refused to endorse Belsky “because he tried to unseat me” in the 1987 city election. Belsky concedes that he did not support Weber, but denies trying to unseat him.

While Weber asserted that Belsky “was the largest single influence on the council at one time,” Councilwoman Mirels said she feels “insulted by the idea that he (Belsky) runs things” on the council. “There are no cliques or groups.”

She said Belsky “does his homework to the nth degree and what he has to say is quite valid,” but that more often than not, he is on the dissenting end of 4 to 1 votes.

Mirels said he has a somewhat gruff manner that may seem intimidating to people who don’t know him. “He does speak up in no uncertain terms,” she said.

School Dispute

Bradley said his major reason for moving against Belsky was the Dapplegray School dispute last year, in which many residents called on the city to acquire the 42 acres from the Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District. Denying that he led an attack on attempts to save the land, Belsky said the entire council concluded the city could not pay for it. “If there had been money, I would have favored purchasing it,” he said. The school district has yet to sell the property.

Allegations relating to business connections and possible conflicts of interest involving Belsky and other council members have taken a prominent place in the recall effort.

Though the Palos Verdes National Bank is not named, a recall charge asserts that stock investments in that bank by Belsky, Muller and Schwarzmann could raise “possibilities of conflict of interest, potential for violating the Brown (open meetings) Act. . . .”

Bradley argues that the three council members could give special treatment to other stockholders of the bank if they appear before the council. And he contends that any time any three council members are together, “they break the Brown Act” because “they have the potential to discuss city business.”

Belsky has labeled the conflict charge “absolutely false.”

Stock Ownership

According to current financial disclosure forms, Belsky--who is on the bank’s board--owns common stock worth in excess of $100,000 and an ownership greater than 10%. Stock worth less than $10,000 is owned by Schwarzmann, Muller and Planning Commissioner Kenneth Mitchell.

Since opening at Peninsula Center on April 19, 1982, the bank has “never had any transactions with the city of Rolling Hills Estates,” said Victor Bennett, president and chief operating officer.

City Atty. Richard Terzian said Belsky, Schwarzmann and Muller have no conflict because the bank does not do business with the city.

He also said that Bradley misunderstands the Brown Act, explaining that council members “can gather together and talk about social matters . . . (or) abstract problems of government. What they cannot do is discuss specific matters pending or prospective before the City Council.”

Belsky’s committee has raised $13,263 and spent $10,869, according to campaign finance statements filed with the city. Belsky and his company, Bumper Line Products, through donations and loans, have provided $3,500 of the total.

Bradley said the recall committee, Committee for Citizen / Council Harmony, has not filed campaign statements “because we were not aware it had to be done.”