Lack of Quorum Holds Up Vote on Motel Controversy

A controversial decision over whether to build a motel in Hawaiian Gardens has been put off until after the April 10 City Council election because there was no quorum at last week’s council meeting.

Two motel supporters, Councilwomen Kathleen Navejas and Lennie Wagner, did not attend the meeting Tuesday. “We had received some very threatening phone calls,” said Navejas, who said she filed a report about the calls with the sheriff’s station in Lakewood. Navejas said the callers warned her and Wagner not to vote for the motel.

A third motel supporter, Venn Furgeson, sent a letter saying he was too ill to attend the meeting and that he will be resigning from the council after the election.

Joe Cabrera Zermeno, a council candidate opposed to the motel, said that Wagner and Navejas, who is seeking reelection, did not attend the meeting because, with Furgeson ill, they did not have the third vote they needed for the project.

The motel has become the hottest election issue in the city, with residents complaining that it will draw prostitution and drugs to the area around Carson Street and Belshire Avenue.

The next meeting of the council will not be until April 17, the week after the election. Normally, there would be a meeting April 10, but because of the election it was postponed.