Irwindale: a City Split by Dissension

Nobody said it would be easy. But the latest rash of squabbles and setbacks related to this city’s quest to lure the football Raiders away from Los Angeles has city officials laboring to get back on track.

Despite brave assertions that a deal to build a football stadium is “very much alive,” city officials acknowledge that Irwindale is in disarray. Most of the blame is being placed on recent troubles with fired consultant Fred Lyte.

“We’ve had disagreements among our City Council and community over the years,” said Mayor Patricio Miranda, in a written statement last week, “but I’ve never seen our community divided like it is now by an outsider and his followers.”

Lyte, who lives in San Marino, blames Miranda for “destroying much of the good work of the past 12 years.” Along with City Manager Charles Martin and recently rehired consultant Xavier Hermosillo, Lyte was one of the three principals who negotiated the initial agreement with the Raiders.

In recent weeks, the following developments have shaken the equilibrium of a city that has seen its share of rancorous political feuds:

A group of residents has initiated a recall campaign against Miranda and City Councilman Salvador Hernandez, charging them with bringing “chaos” to the city’s redevelopment program and jeopardizing the stadium deal.

Miranda and Hernandez have issued statements charging Lyte with orchestrating the recall campaign and creating problems for the city in the midst of sensitive negotiations for a football stadium.

Angry memos from opposing sides have charged that a college and trade school scholarship fund for deserving Irwindale youngsters, established with a portion of Lyte’s fees for bringing new businesses to the city, is either being mismanaged or “held hostage” by Lyte.

The city has been forced to abandon its preferred site for a football stadium, in a gravel pit north of the 210 Freeway, switching to another gravel pit west of the 605 Freeway.

Though city officials have promised an update on stadium negotiations at this week’s council meeting, a memo from R. Zaiden Corrado, a special counsel to the city, indicates that Irwindale may be coming up short in financing for the deal. Charging that Lyte had failed to produce a promised $35 million from “major companies in the area,” Corrado said, “we’re now short that $35 million in trying to finalize the deal with the Raiders.”

Negotiations ‘Moving Along’

But City Manager Martin insisted last week that negotiations are “moving along.”

He said that the city had switched sites “with the permission of (Raiders General Manager) Al Davis” and that the city had initiated “some very rapid studies” on the new site.

The old site was jeopardized by the city’s inability to gain control of a would-be stadium parking lot on land now controlled by the county and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. “After a year of trying to convince the corps and the county, we’re finding we’re not getting the cooperation we need,” said Martin. “So we’re switching.”

But most of the anger last week seemed directed at the management of the $300,000 scholarship fund, which has provided as much as $10,000 a year for Irwindale youngsters to attend such places as UC Berkeley Law School, Harvard and a golf pro school.

One of the diverse perquisites available to the 1,000 or so residents of Irwindale--whose aggressive Redevelopment Agency has filled city coffers and provided its citizens with optical expenses, home improvement grants and free senior citizen breakfasts--the Irwindale Scholarship Fund has been doling out about $40,000 a year in the past eight years.

But now, city officials charge, scholarships are being “held hostage” by Lyte, who was fired last December. Lyte was a major player in the city’s 12-year transformation from the “gravel capital of Southern California” to a prosperous center of commerce and industry.

The scholarship foundation was established in 1978, as part of Lyte’s contract with the city. Before the City Council dismissed him, Lyte had earned about $6 million in commissions for bringing new businesses to the city. He agreed to put 10% of that into the scholarship fund.

Lyte said that he had chipped in about $80,000 a year in additional funds--”to build up the capital.”

Lyte is using the scholarship fund as a tool to get the city to drop its $2-million lawsuit against him, charged Corrado, whose law offices are in Fullerton. Lyte’s wife Margie, the scholarship fund’s treasurer, has refused to allow any money to be disbursed to recent applicants, Corrado said.

“There are at least seven kids who need the money and they need it now,” said Corrado. “Based on Mr. Lyte’s most recent correspondence, those applications are being denied.”

In its lawsuit, the city has charged Lyte with conflict of interest, claiming that he had violated a provision in his contract forbidding him from recommending to the city projects in which he had a financial interest. The City Council has withheld more than $1 million in fees still owed to Lyte.

New Scholarship Fund

Corrado proposed last week that the city establish a new scholarship fund, using $15,000 in city funds for immediate scholarship awards, while the fate of the current foundation is being determined.

Lyte, who donated most of the foundation’s funds, said last week that he and his wife were simply trying to preserve the foundation’s principal for future generations of applicants.

“All I’m saying is, let’s make sure we have the money to spend before we spend it,” said Lyte, denying that he was trying to “blackmail the children of Irwindale.”

A Philosophical Difference

Martin acknowledged that there was a philosophical difference between Lyte and the City Council. “Fred feels that no capital should be spent, only interest,” said the man who serves as city manager and city attorney. “The city feels that funds should be expended on the basis of need and demand.”

City officials have also charged Lyte with orchestrating the recall campaign against Miranda and Hernandez. “A disgruntled former consultant and his followers are creating problems in our city at a time when we need to focus our energies on the Raider deal,” said Hernandez, in a written statement in response to the petitions. Neither Miranda nor Hernandez responded to telephone calls from The Times last week.

The recall campaign was initiated last month by Irwindale resident Brenda Marin, whose petitions charged Miranda with using his office for personal gain and Hernandez with “blindly” supporting the mayor.

Reached at her home, Marin refused to comment. “I don’t give interviews to anyone but the Tribune,” she said, referring to the San Gabriel Valley Daily Tribune. To bring the recall to a vote, Marin and her supporters must garner the signatures of 160 of the city’s registered 532 voters, said a spokeswoman for the city clerk.

Hermosillo, a special public relations consultant for the city, said that recent correspondence from Lyte showed that the fired consultant “obviously has involved himself in this recall.”

Open Letters

Hermosillo, who was fired by the city last May, was recently rehired at $100 an hour to become part of the city’s new negotiating team.

He referred to two open letters to Irwindale residents that Lyte has mailed recently at his own expense, both attacking Miranda. In one of the letters, distributed in March, Lyte offered to assist any pro-recall voters whose rights were interfered with by local authorities.

“I have discussed this recall election with federal authorities,” Lyte said in the letter.

“He has carried a personal difference of opinion with the mayor to a point which extends far beyond anything that’s been done in this community before,” contended Hermosillo.

Lyte denies that he is personally involved in the recall campaign.