ELECTION : LAWNDALE : 4 Vie for Mayoralty and 10 Seek 2 Council Seats

Tighter controls on residential development and a high employee turnover rate at City Hall are the issues most often raised by candidates in Lawndale’s April 10 City Council and mayoral elections.

Mayor Sarann Kruse and Councilman Dan McKenzie are not seeking reelection. Kruse’s post is being sought by four candidates: 10-year council veteran Harold Hofmann, 57; Virginia Rhodes, 54, an office manager and former planning commissioner; Michael Machado, 27, a tow truck operator, and Melissa Bergstrom, 33, a health counselor, registered nurse and hypnotherapist.

Ten candidates are vying for two council seats. They are incumbent Councilman Larry Rudolph, 52, who is seeking his second four-year term; Gary McDonald, 31, a development consultant and former planning commissioner; Fran Ramsey, 49, an inventory control specialist and wife of former Councilman Jim Ramsey; Norman Lagerquist, 34, an aerospace engineer and vice president of the La Palma Homeowners Assn., and William Johnson, 30, a grocery store operations manager and president of the La Palma Homeowners Assn. The council candidates include Uffe Moller, 47, an aerospace research and development technician; Ronald V. Maxwell, 27, a planner and analyst at an office furniture company and former parks and recreation commissioner; Nancy Marthens, 46, a business data analyst and also a former parks and recreation commissioner; Herman Weinstein, 67, a real estate agent and flight engineer, and write-in candidate Eric F. Gittins, 62, a retired tool engineer.

Development issues--such as residential density, parking problems and a shortage of parkland--are a major concern in Lawndale, a 1.9-square-mile city with more than 27,000 residents.

In November, voters overwhelmingly rejected ballot measures designed to resolve questions about the city’s General Plan. The voters essentially rejected the city’s 1976 General Plan, sparking a development dilemma that temporarily forced city officials to stop issuing building permits.

In December, the state Office of Planning and Research allowed the city to issue building permits for one year under the 1976 General Plan, while the city works to draft a new plan to submit to voters.

All council candidates agree that the city’s top priority is to complete and get voter approval for a new general plan. Still, 11 of the council and mayoral candidates accused the current council majority--including Hofmann, McKenzie and Rudolph--of letting the city become overdeveloped by awarding developers special building variances.

“The current council has been inconsistent in enforcing building standards,” said Lagerquist. “Quality projects have been stifled. We need fair, consistent enforcement.”

Hofmann said the council has not been lenient with developers. “I feel we have a feel for good development,” he said. Rudolph agreed, saying he has been tough on developers. “Development is not going crazy in Lawndale,” he said.

McDonald--who is endorsed by Hofmann, Rudolph and McKenzie--is the only challenger who did not criticize the council’s record. He said the city needs to put tighter controls on developers, but he believes the problem lies with the city’s development standards, which he describes as out of date.

Lawndale council meetings have been notorious for their boisterous sessions and heated debates. All the council members have previously said they would like to put an end to the squabbling.

Several challengers criticized council members, saying they spend more time debating and arguing than they do solving city problems.

“If elected, I will try to make sure there is not so much bickering,” Moller said. “They can’t agree on any one issue.”

In recent months, Lawndale has been plagued by a high employee turnover rate. Last month, Assistant City Manager Paula Cone announced her resignation, the fourth top city official to resign since December. Cone, who had worked with the city for 24 years, was highly regarded by colleagues and city officials who described her as an outstanding employee.

In January, Hyrum Fedje, the city’s planning director, resigned after less than two months on the job to become building and safety director for El Segundo. In December, Housing Coordinator Rufus Washington left after 2 1/2 years on the job. And in February, Kendra Morries announced that she was also departing for El Segundo to become planning manager.

Most of the challengers attribute the employee turnover rate to city staff being overworked, underpaid and harassed by council members. Councilmen Hofmann and Rudolph disagree, saying they believe many of the employees left because the council recently began to demand more work and accountability from the city staff.

On Friday, former Lawndale maintenance supervisor Floyd (Bud) Marez was sentenced to pay restitution after pleading no contest to four criminal charges stemming from a scheme to use city building materials and city workers for private remodeling projects.

Rudolph and Hofmann cited the case as a prime reason why they have strived to demand accountability from City Hall employees.

“I have never said anything to anyone, unless they had it coming,” Rudolph said.

Many employees may have resigned to take higher-paying jobs in other cities, McDonald said. If elected, he said, he would request a study of the city’s current salary schedule to see if it is comparable with salaries offered by other cities.

McDonald, who last year organized a volunteer work force to landscape a portion of the Hawthorne Boulevard median, said he is committed to cutting wasteful spending at City Hall.

“I’ve got a history of saving the taxpayers’s money,” he said. “I’ve got a history of sound judgment.”

Ramsey, a parks and recreation commissioner who said she is “known for being honest to the point of being blunt,” said that, if elected, she would pay close attention to the concerns and suggestions of residents.

“I’d like to see the average, working Joe that is out there struggling every day . . . to know what we are doing,” she said.

Ramsey said she believes the council has given developers in the city a free reign, and she favors tightening development standards and reducing the number of building variances awarded to builders.

Lagerquist, Johnson and mayoral candidate Bergstrom are running as a slate with the support of Mayor Kruse. They decided to seek election, they said, because they believe that most citizens are dissatisfied with the political infighting and turmoil of the City Council.

The “constant bickering of the current council” is the main reason, Lagerquist said, that many City Hall employees have resigned.

Lagerquist said he believes Lawndale voters want to elect “new people who are untarnished by this divisive atmosphere and are committed to working together for the good of the city, rather than against one another.”

Johnson and Bergstrom said they would also promote a strong business community in Lawndale by providing more support for the city’s Chamber of Commerce and removing parking restrictions for shoppers along Hawthorne Boulevard.

“The city is requiring businesses to pay certain taxes but is not doing anything in return,” Bergstrom said.

Moller said he decided to run for the council because he thinks “the city is in a kind of a disarray.” He said he believes employees are leaving City Hall because the council and the mayor have been too busy with political infighting to provide leadership.

Moller and Maxwell both said they would strive to provide more recreational activities for the city’s youth. They said young people would be less likely to join gangs if they have more city-sponsored activities.

Maxwell, who last year fought unsuccessfully to develop a park on the site of a community garden at 160th Street and Sombra Avenue, said he is committed to “planned, controlled growth” and if elected would favor tightening restrictions on developers and reducing the number of building variances awarded by the city.

City departments “have been understaffed and (employees) have been required to take three or four other positions,” he said in relation to the turnover rate. “The council refuses to fill the positions and yet they crucify them when they don’t do their jobs.”

Marthens said the council is to blame for the employee turnover rate because “the council has been micromanaging the staff.”

She said that, if elected, she would work to upgrade city sidewalks, parks and sewers and would also support the purchase of more parkland and the development of a community recreation center.

Weinstein, who has lived in the city since 1949 and helped collect signatures for its incorporation in 1959, said he has been in Lawndale longer than most candidates and is known and respected by many longtime residents.

He also blamed the council for the turnover rate at City Hall, saying that, if elected, he would move to “take the politics out of the city jobs.”

Weinstein, who opposes a set of condominium standards approved by the council in January, has been working with mayoral candidate Virginia Rhodes and Marthens to circulate a petition to place the issue before voters. Weinstein, who has previously said the standards would increase density and parking problems, says that as a council member he would advocate orderly growth.

Weinstein and Gittins both said they think the City Council has spent too much time bickering and has become deaf to the concerns of the public. Weinstein said he would “take into account all citizens’ rights.”

Gittins said he would battle gang violence and graffiti by forming a citizens watch program. He said he would propose that the city train citizens to patrol the streets and report crimes to law enforcement authorities.

He also said he would advocate developing more parkland and a recreational center for children and senior citizens.

Rudolph defends his record on the council, saying he has been tough on developers.

“I have not let anybody get away with anything,” he said.

Rudolph, who drafted the condominium standards that Weinstein opposes, maintains they will increase home ownership and community stability by encouraging developers to replace apartments with condominiums.

He also said he has worked to fight crime in the city, noting that last year he voted to increase by $400,000 the budget for Sheriff’s Department services to the city. He said he also supported the hiring of a full-time Neighborhood Watch director.

Among the mayoral candidates, Rhodes said she believes the city’s turnover rate is the fault of some council members whose attempts to supervise city employees have resulted in harassment.

She also said the council has failed to provide leadership and has not adequately enforced the zoning codes that control the city’s residential development. “We need to stop all of these special exemptions,” she said.

Hofmann said that, if elected mayor, he would promote the city’s business community by working to upgrade and landscape Hawthorne Boulevard, the city’s main thoroughfare. Hofmann said he has lived in the city for 57 years and believes most residents know how he stands on various issues.

Machado, who said he has not been active in city politics and has never participated in civic groups, said he hopes to represent the common citizen.

“I’m just a plain old workingman that woke up one morning and said ‘Why not me?’ ” he said.

Machado said he feels the most vital issue facing the city is putting controls on residential development. He said he would work to keep the city “more of a bedroom community” and would clamp down on giving developers special building variances.

City Clerk Neil Roth, 47, will run unopposed for his second four-year term.