Montebello : 2nd Anti-Eminent Domain Activist to Run for Council

Thirteen-year Montebello resident Larry Salazar, who helped run the successful campaign that stopped the city from acquiring land-taking power in south Montebello, has announced his candidacy for the City Council in November.

Salazar, head of Citizens Against Eminent Domain, is the second person to formally announce a campaign for city office since voters defeated two ballot measures that would have given the Community Redevelopment Agency the power of eminent domain in two industrial sections of the city.

Activist Shirley Garcia, who worked with Salazar, announced her candidacy a month after voters on April 2 rejected the controversial ballot measures.

There will be three council seats open in the Nov. 7 municipal election. Two incumbents, Arnold Glasman and Edward Pizzorno, have said they plan to run for reelection, and Mayor William Nighswonger has announced that he will retire.

In a prepared press statement, Salazar said that “slow, planned and controlled growth” is the most important issue the city faces. He also promised to change the “lack of response to the needs of the community,” a charge that he and other anti-eminent domain leaders leveled against a majority of council members.

As a resident of south Montebello, Salazar said he is “concerned with the unique situations that residents face in the area and the need for a police substation in south Montebello.”

Another leader of the anti-eminent domain movement, former Councilman William Molinari, has said he is still pondering whether he will seek to regain his spot on the five-member council.