ELECTIONS / BALDWIN PARK : Race Is a Dogfight as Animal Shelter Becomes Key Issue

Much to the dismay of most of the nine candidates running for city office, the main topic in this year’s race has been cats and dogs.

Citizens for Pet Protection, a Los Angeles-based group, has seized the opportunity provided by the election to campaign for an end to the county animal shelter’s practice of selling unclaimed pets for medical experiments.

The shelter, which is based in Baldwin Park and serves nine San Gabriel Valley communities, last year sold 247 unclaimed dogs and cats to laboratories out of the 30,000-plus animals that passed through its doors.

“In a democracy, people determine what is important to them, and animals are important to the people of Baldwin Park,” said Robyne Harrington, president of the pet group, which last December failed in its attempt to have the council ban the sale of the city’s animals from the shelter.

Her group has won the support of two candidates and is actively endorsing them through mailers, phone calls and door-to-door campaigning. The issue also dominated a recent candidates forum.

But most of the other candidates have expressed concern that the issue, championed by an outside group, is obscuring more important matters: the city’s financial woes, the status of redevelopment projects and two ballot measures aimed at converting the mayor’s office from an elected seat to a rotating position among council members.

“Those people are knocking on doors saying that I hate animals and want them killed,” said Mayor Pro Tem Bette Lowes, one of three candidates for mayor. “That’s absolutely not true. But I have more respect for the voters than to get involved in this fear-and-smear campaign.”

Lowes, 57, was elected to a four-year council term in 1988 and took over as acting mayor when Leo King resigned last November. If she loses her bid for mayor, she still will serve out the remaining two years of her council term.

A Baldwin Park resident for 37 years, Lowes takes credit for having helped select recently named Police Chief Carmine Lanza and City Manager Don Penman to head the ranks of what had been a demoralized city staff.

“I am part of the team that changed the oil on the smoking city car,” said Lowes, who serves as president of the city’s Adult Education Advisory Committee and vice president of the county’s Mid-Valley Mental Health Board.

Her challengers, Frank Mamone and Albert E. Sanders, both contend that Lowes has been part of the problem--including a budget crunch that last year forced the city to lay off its entire code enforcement team.

Mamone, who declines to give his age, is a retired supervisor of weapons manufacturing plants for the Defense Department and owns and manages a mobile home park. This is his third bid for mayor.

“The city is broke, and the taxpayers want to hear what is going to be done about stopping the squandering,” said Mamone, one of the candidates endorsed by the pet-protection group. “I will tell people in this city what and where the truth is.”

Sanders, 41, is an ex-Marine Corps veteran and a former machinist for an aluminum awning company. He describes himself as a house husband, helping to raise two children, ages 11 and 13. He made two previous council bids.

“The people in power do nothing for nobody but themselves,” said Sanders, who belongs to no clubs or organizations because of what he sees as the potential for a conflict of interest. “Only a small, select group in this town makes the decisions. I would open it up.”

Six other candidates, including two incumbents, are vying for two council seats.

Councilman Bobbie Izell, 64, a retired cement layer and home builder who has served 11 years on the council, is the other candidate endorsed by the pet group.

Councilwoman Julia McNeill, 65, a retired cardiovascular technician, was elected to the council in 1987, filling the seat vacated by her late husband, Robert McNeill, who died in December, 1986, after eight years on the council.

Hillel Arkin, 71, a retired accountant and member of the San Gabriel Valley Water Information Group, would like to develop Baldwin Park as the science and technology hub of Southern California.

Richard Cooks, 32, a free-lance career counselor and director of volunteers for the Los Angeles-based Fred Jordan Missions, proposes to save money by using volunteers in city posts.

Martin Gallegos, 33, a Baldwin Park chiropractor and president-elect of Rotary Club, says he wants to put his leadership and business experience to work for the city.

And Raul Reyes, 34, an Internal Revenue Service collection officer and member of the city’s Planning Commission, says that his listening and communication skills could help win back confidence in city government.