South El Monte Gets Lesson in Hardball : Supervisors Adamantly Oppose City’s Proposal for Auto Mall

It was a lesson in political hardball, a taste of local Realpolitik, for South El Monte after its city officials tangled Tuesday with the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors over city plans to develop a string of car dealerships in a specially built auto park.

Led by an angry Supervisor Pete Schabarum, the board adamantly opposed the proposed auto mall near the Whittier Narrows Dam Recreation Area--one of the county’s largest regional parks--and vowed to press their case against the development with federal officials.

South El Monte, a community of 18,500 people, wants the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to sell it 7.8 acres of government land in the Whittier Narrows Flood Control Basin. The city would combine that with a 21-acre, privately owned parcel as a site for the commercial auto park.

The auto mall, as envisioned by city officials, would contain seven car dealerships and provide $500,000 annually in sales tax revenue for South El Monte. But labeling the proposal “ridiculous,” Schabarum complained Tuesday that the city had engaged in “subterfuge” in quietly annexing the 21-acre parcel and then using “special legislation” in Congress authorizing federal officials to sell the adjacent property to the city.

Schabarum, who represents the Whittier Narrows area, accused the city of engaging in an “end-around” ploy to develop the mall.

“I don’t want you to get too close to this because it isn’t smelling too good,” Schabarum warned Supervisor Deane Dana, who sought to delay a board vote on the proposal.

When South El Monte City Manager Raul T. Romero attempted to defend his city’s proposal, Supervisor Kenneth Hahn looked out into the audience and pointed to a group of 50 Alhambra High School students there to observe the board’s regular Tuesday meeting.

“In other words, for the benefit of the students,” Hahn asked Romero, “was this a slick deal by South El Monte?” Romero declined to answer, but after the board meeting, Mayor Albert G. Perez insisted that his city was not trying to bamboozle the county but was only pursuing a way to raise much-needed revenue.

“It’s not a slick deal. . . . It’s getting to the point where we’re hurting for money,” said Perez, who claimed that the government property is not pristine parkland that would attract visitors but a much less desirable parcel located near the noisy Pomona Freeway.

Calling Schabarum “a hardball player” who adamantly refuses to give up any land to the city, Perez added that as a member of the Local Agency Formation Commission, Schabarum should have been aware of the annexation. And although the county opposition jeopardizes the South El Monte’s chances of obtaining the parcel, Perez said the city could still proceed with a smaller-scale development.

In denouncing the city’s plan, however, Schabarum contended that South El Monte officials were more concerned about profit motives than about park-goers. And in the end, Schabarum was able to persuade four of his colleagues to join him, helped in part by an unwritten board rule that members support supervisors on issues that involve their own district.

The only “no” vote was cast by Dana, who said Tuesday that he had received a phone call from one of his appointees on a county commission who is in favor of the auto park.

LAND DISPUTE

South El Monte hopes to buy a 7.8-acre parcel from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and add it to an adjacent 21-acre, privately owned parcel to use as a site for a commercial auto park. The county is opposed to the plan and wants to maintain the land for public recreation and flood control purposes.