Maverick Activist Gaining Clout in Lawndale

While running for election to the Lawndale City Council in 1982, law-and-order candidate Gary M. McDonald was hauled into the Lennox sheriff’s station in handcuffs to settle misdemeanor warrants on six traffic and leash law violations.

To protest what he contended was a politically motivated arrest for tickets that later would be dismissed in court, McDonald appeared before the next Lawndale City Council in a striped prisoner’s outfit, complete with ball and chain, and a sign proclaiming himself “Lawndale’s Most-Wanted Man.”

To those who know him, the prison-garb stunt is pure Gary McDonald. The incident demonstrates McDonald’s taste for the dramatic and instinctive grasp of politics, and it’s an example of the kind of scrapes that give fodder to McDonald’s critics, said past and present associates.

With reactions ranging from enthusiasm to dismay, city officials and other observers acknowledge that McDonald is likely to become a candidate for City Council in 1990. McDonald said he is considering running for a council seat, but regardless, he is one of the most powerful figures in Lawndale.

Allied With Majority

The 29-year-old activist, a development consultant, is chairman of the Lawndale Planning Commission. But more important, he is so closely allied with the three-member ruling majority of the City Council that ousted City Manager Daniel P. Joseph calls him “the sixth councilman.”

Through McDonald’s efforts over the years, wrongdoing at City Hall has been uncovered and the officials deemed responsible have been forced out of their jobs. The council majority--Harold E. Hofmann, Larry Rudolph and Dan McKenzie--solidly backs McDonald.

Critics including Mayor Sarann Kruse and Councilwoman Carol Norman characterize McDonald as a zealot who conducts investigations without respect for due process, taking matters into his own hands. They charge him with “vigilantism” at City Hall.

Should McDonald decide to run for office, he will have to contend with a record that contains some solid achievements and some embarrassing lapses of judgment.

McDonald’s peccadilloes range in seriousness from an incomplete automobile license registration (now corrected) and overdue business license fee (recently paid), to plagiarism on a 1988 campaign statement he wrote for Hoffmann. McDonald issued a public apology, saying he thought lines he copied from Kruse were “common phrases” that could be used without attribution. “I realize now I was totally wrong,” he said.

A rough-hewn maverick who seems to thrive on controversy, McDonald has lived all his life in Lawndale, a small blue-collar city in “the heart of the South Bay,” a phrase he successfully advocated for inclusion in the city seal.

In one of a series of interviews, McDonald said he feels he provides a common-sense approach to city problems. As an example, he pointed to a proposal for the restriping of an intersection rather than a costly traffic mitigation project. Lawndale could benefit, he continued, from leadership by “individuals who base their thinking on private sector methods, and not a government philosophy of correcting problems by spending, spending, spending.”

Known for his tireless one-man investigations, McDonald is a fiscal conservative who sees himself as a moderate on development issues. He has a take-charge approach that inspires strong feelings among friends and foes.

Former city Planning Director Mark Winogrand, who now works for the city of West Hollywood, said that whatever his faults, McDonald is a “tenacious fighter” and is “clearly part of the new generation of leaders coming up in Lawndale.”

McDonald was born at Daniel Freeman Hospital on Nov. 3, 1959, just before Lawndale was incorporated as a city. When he was 2 months old, his father died of a heart attack.

The early death of his father had a profound effect on him. “That was what inspired me to start work at an early age,” said McDonald, who after the eighth grade took an after-school job to help support his mother and two sisters. His mother, Margaret McDonald, describes him as an earnest youngster who was eager to be of service.

Cal Ehinger, a general contractor who was a member of the Lawndale council from 1972 to 1984, gave McDonald his first job. Ehinger said he noticed the youth’s interest in government affairs and encouraged him to get involved in city politics. McDonald participated in his first election campaign by handing out flyers as a Boy Scout.

A 1977 Lawndale High School graduate, McDonald took a series of construction and development jobs, working for two years for the company that built The Galleria at South Bay.

McDonald has run for election twice in Lawndale: In the 1982 City Council race, McDonald came in second with 395 votes, losing to Jim Ramsey, who got 693. In the 1986 race for the city clerk’s job, McDonald received 597 votes, while the winner, Neil K. Roth, got 670. Meanwhile, McDonald continued to hone his self-appointed role as a city watchdog, targeting one thorny issue after another.

In one instance he went after a battery shop that was discharging corrosive acid into a city street near a school, resulting in costly fines to the firm, which was ordered to stop the practice; another time he targeted what he believed were excessive city expenditures for automobile maintenance.

“I do believe we need some positive energy to bring about changes,” he said.

Ironically, it was Kruse who eventually appointed McDonald to the Planning Commission in 1986. Some say she did so to neutralize his opposition and harness his energies as part of the City Hall Establishment. Kruse has since become one of McDonald’s severest critics and twice sought to remove him from the commission for what she felt was improper conduct, including a public argument he had with local business owners.

More fundamentally, Kruse and McDonald differ over their approaches to problems--she, as a believer in government process and he more likely to take on an issue single-handedly. Their split widened over his admitted copying of portions of her 1986 ballot statement for Hofmann’s 1988 re-election campaign.

Elected Chairman

Last year, McDonald was reappointed to the Planning Commission by Hofmann, then was elected chairman by a unanimous vote of commission members.

Hofmann, a sewer contractor who has served on the council since 1980, is among McDonald’s staunchest supporters.

“Gary has the time, energy and resources to get to the bottom of things that nobody else seems to be able to,” he said, adding that he sees McDonald as a likely city councilman. “He knows much more than some of the staff members how to run city government.”

Councilman Rudolph also praised McDonald: “What makes him unique is that he doesn’t care who it is--if something is wrong he wants to get to the bottom of it.”

McDonald attends practically every council meeting, often pulling up a chair at the staff table at council meetings to offer commission input. He conducts Lawndale Planning Commission meetings twice a month.

The Planning Commission is notable in Lawndale for its consensus decision-making, compared to the City Council, which has consistently split 3-to-2 since last April’s election. “All five of us (on the commission) realize that we have certain responsibilities, that we are obligated to deal with issues, and that dealing with issues by personal character assassination is not productive, not healthy,” said McDonald. A bachelor, McDonald likes skiing and camping, but said his principal extracurricular activity is keeping a watch on city business.

Heads Own Firm

McDonald heads a small development consulting firm called Government Services. His critics contend he is too close to development interests, but McDonald said he only rarely accepts work in Lawndale.

McDonald said that owning his own business allows him to spend all the time he wants on city business. Late last week, for example, he went to Sacramento to research state documents that he believes will show Lawndale has been overestimating developer fees that go to local schools.

Ramsey, who defeated McDonald in the 1982 election and has remained an adversary, contends that McDonald indiscriminately investigates so many matters that it is pure luck when he hits on a real problem. “He’s like a stopped clock--twice a day, he’s right,” said Ramsey, who served on the council from 1974 to 1986.

Some may call it luck, but a number of McDonald’s investigations have hit the jackpot. For example, McDonald said, about eight years ago the city manager and two employees resigned in the midst of an investigation into whether they hired friends under a federal jobs training program for Lawndale residents; in 1987, another city manager and planning director were forced out, in part because of McDonald’s finding that building permits were improperly issued for structures that did not meet city parking and setback regulations.

Detractors say that when McDonald gets an inkling of possible wrongdoing, he typically bypasses the professional city staff and ignores established procedures. On occasion, his critics said, he has released damaging information before charges are proven, risking injury to innocent parties.

Suspected Embezzlement

Kruse and Norman question McDonald’s handling of suspected embezzlement by two city maintenance employees last year. They said McDonald and Rudolph went directly to City Hall files to search for evidence, and McDonald released the names of several employees he thought might be involved. At least one of those was proved innocent, and later that person quit. McDonald contends that he and Rudolph wanted to see if an investigation by the city was warranted. He said that he and Rudolph went to former City Manager Joseph as soon as they obtained documentation from city files showing employees had charged materials to the city and used them in their private remodeling business. A maintenance supervisor was fired and another worker resigned as a result of the city’s investigation; a criminal investigation is being conducted by the district attorney.

“Gary has the philosophy that the ends justify the means,” said Kruse, who added that City Hall employees are intimidated by McDonald’s considerable influence with the council majority.

Members of the city staff are wary of McDonald, and some refused to be interviewed unless their names were withheld. City workers “don’t feel secure about their jobs when he’s around,” said one staff member. And another former employee advised a successor: “Your career is doomed to failure unless you develop a positive relationship with (McDonald), and unless you are sincere in doing so. He’s too innately smart to be fooled.”

Called Divisive

McDonald’s critics say he is so divisive he may be unable to achieve the consensus needed for genuine change to occur.

“I wish Gary could be more diplomatic,” said Bob Cerny, a former city treasurer who has served on the Lawndale Planning Commission for 10 years. “You don’t have to come down with a sledgehammer” to get things done, he said, adding that he feels McDonald sometimes oversteps the Planning Commission’s advisory role and attempts to set policy.

Commissioner Pat Sturgeon, a Kruse appointee, said McDonald “just goes ahead and bullies his way in without taking time to investigate quietly.”

Commissioner Bruce McKee, a longtime friend, said he thinks McDonald is doing a good job, but acknowledged, “He is pushy. . . . He is a very intense individual, extremely goal-oriented, and sometimes he is less than diplomatic.”

McDonald admitted that sometimes he steps on toes, but defended his aggressive approach. Too often, he said, “the city only responds to problems, it doesn’t take steps to prevent a problem.”

He cited as examples of his accomplishments the development in 1983 of a five-year plan for capital improvements, which he said will help provide long-term planning for the city. And at a December meeting of the Planning Commission, he pressed for speedy action on the long-discussed revitalization of the city’s Hawthorne Boulevard business district.

Because McDonald shares the conservative fiscal views of Hofmann, Rudolph and McKenzie, some say that he can get council action on any issue he deems important.

Kruse, Norman and others have questioned the propriety of McDonald’s close alliance with the council majority.

Secret Meetings Alleged

Kruse and Norman have stated publicly that they believe the four men have violated the state Brown Act by making decisions privately among themselves on such matters as the dismissal in December of City Manager Joseph. Both said that McDonald knew of the majority’s intention to oust the city manager before the council met in closed session to do so.

Joseph, who was not accused of wrongdoing but who often clashed with the council majority, said he is convinced the Brown Act was violated. In a closed session of the council in December, Joseph said that Hofmann said at the outset, “ We want your resignation.”

Hofmann, Rudolph, McKenzie and McDonald deny that they have violated the Brown Act. “There have been no secret meetings and there is no secret agenda,” said Hofmann firmly. Asked whether McDonald helps make council decisions, Hofmann replied: “Gary doesn’t control anybody.”

But the ousted city manager said of McDonald: “I think he’s actually stronger than any single member of the council because, in my opinion, he influences three of them.” While McDonald may not directly influence council members, he serves as a “catalyst” in forming the majority opinion, Joseph said. “As far as I’m concerned, he’s part of the ruling majority.”

McDonald frequents City Hall and has interfered in such matters as the locations of partitions between offices, Joseph said. When McDonald questioned the rearrangement, “I told him, ‘I don’t work for you,’ ” Joseph said. “It was such trivial things as that that led to my demise--the rearrangement of office space or the disposition of Coke machine proceeds,” he said. “I never had a chance to manage. The substantive issues never got addressed.”

Efforts Defended

McDonald defended his attention to details, and said that his efforts, dismissed at first as meddling, have resulted in major changes.

Told that one critic called him “a loose cannon on the deck,” McDonald retorted: “That may be so, but if you’re corrupt, I’m likely to hit you with such force you’ll fall overboard.”

Current and former city officials say that although McDonald has uncovered some real problems, he is also capable of getting sidetracked on insignificant issues or pursuing a vendetta.

To this day, McDonald contends that his arrest in 1982 was instigated by his council opponent, Ramsey, an insurance agent and reserve sheriff’s deputy. McDonald also blamed Sheriff Department officials who, he said, resented his support of a ballot measure to replace sheriff’s services in Lawndale with other law enforcement.

Those charges were denied by Ramsey and by Capt. Allen L. Mathews, who was in charge of the Lennox sheriff’s station at the time of McDonald’s arrest. In fact, Mathews said, the arrest was “unfortunate” because it made a cause celebre out of McDonald and the ballot measure, which failed.

McDonald’s tickets eventually were dismissed when he showed he had paid the traffic fines and was not the registered owner of Daisy and Rufus, the dogs who broke the city’s leash laws. The mixed-breed strays, adopted by the McDonald family, were officially registered to his mother, authorities discovered.

Sufficient time has passed that McDonald today sees the humor in being arrested over the errant droppings of the family’s two dogs. “Everybody remembers those dog-defecation tickets,” he said.

McDonald said he did not sue over his arrest because it would have been incompatible with his political philosophy: Had he won a settlement, he said, it only would have raised his taxes. “Taking money from the government isn’t the way to change something that isn’t working right.”