ELECTIONS HUNTINGTON PARK CITY COUNCIL : Latino Candidate Stirs Up Race, Attacks Two Incumbents

It took some of the venom out of the campaign for City Council when Councilman Herbert A. Hennes decided not to seek reelection, clearing the way for a Latino to win a seat for the first time in the city’s history in next Tuesday’s election.

But candidate Luis Hernandez will just not let the race for the three council seats be a tame, gentlemanly affair.

The 29-year-old financial analyst has been shocking some community members and pleasantly surprising others with his attacks on Councilmen William P. Cunningham and Jim Roberts for the city’s financial problems.

“It is a failed venture on their part,” Hernandez said during a recent candidates forum.

As a result, Cunningham, 50, and Roberts, 55, say they are campaigning more heavily than ever before. Theirs is mostly a defensive campaign because financial problems forced the city to lay off 25 employees and to make service cuts last October. Those cuts, combined with a planned $15-million bond issue, should keep the city out of financial straits, they contend.

“The city has resolved its financial condition,” Roberts said. “I’m very hopeful and optimistic about its future.”

Said Cunningham: “We’ve been through the downside, and I’d like to be here on the upside.”

In contrast to Hernandez, candidate Raul Perez has not strongly criticized the incumbents. A native of Guadalajara, Mexico, Perez is stressing his ability to understand and communicate with Huntington Park’s large Spanish-speaking population.

The 47-year-old loan officer says Latino representation on the council is essential, given the fact that the city’s population is more than 90% Latino.

“Unity means strength and we need to get together and face (our) problems,” Perez said.

The two Latinos are strong candidates while the third challenger, Alan Kartsman, a perennial candidate who has not been actively campaigning, is given little chance of winning. Kartsman did not return calls for comment.

Evidence of the race is everywhere in Huntington Park. Campaign signs have sprouted from lawns. Residents have received numerous mailers from the candidates in recent weeks. Local observers say the race is likely to end up as one of the closest ever.

Cunningham and Roberts have been trying to shore up their image in light of the city’s financial problems in recent years.

Huntington Park’s redevelopment program has contributed to those problems. The agency, which is governed by the five council members, fell too deeply into debt and was forced to borrow more than $15 million from the city’s general fund.

The problem came to a head last October, when the city laid off the 25 workers, cut vacant positions and virtually eliminated recreational programs at two city parks. The city is trying to replace those programs with volunteer workers, Roberts said. New fees for tree trimming and other services also have been imposed on residents.

But Roberts and Cunningham counter that the redevelopment program has brought scores of new businesses and homes into the city, and that it has dramatically increased property values. They say the city’s general fund money eventually will be paid back with future property tax revenues from the redevelopment program. Those revenues also are projected to cover payments on the $15-million bond issue, city officials said.

“We spent a good amount of general funds,” Roberts said. “You could have seen that money as an investment in our community.”

But Hernandez counters that the community would have been better served if the Redevelopment Agency had not overextended itself and drained city coffers of millions of dollars.

“Redevelopment, although successful in many respects, is a failure in this community,” Hernandez said. “Had we had these monies . . . we would have had more police.”

Hiring more police is something on which all the council candidates agree. Crime, especially gang-related crime, has been increasing in Huntington Park in recent years.

But again, Hernandez is at odds with the two incumbents and Perez on how to pay for more officers.

Cunningham, Roberts and Perez say they would support some type of tax--probably a utility tax--to pay for additional officers. A 7% utility tax to pay for more officers, among other things, was overwhelmingly defeated by voters last September.

Hernandez opposes a new tax but has not offered a specific plan to pay for the new police officers he would like to hire, if elected.

Latino civic leaders had been meeting for months to sort out which Latino candidates to back. The Latino civic leaders figured the city’s financial problems would weaken the incumbents, providing the best chance ever for a Latino to be elected.

Among other complaints, council critics said that none of the city’s nine top administrators are Latino, and just two of Huntington Park’s 18 appointed commissioners are Latino.

Despite their numbers--about 90% of the city’s 59,000 residents--Latinos have not figured heavily into Huntington Park politics because many are not citizens and cannot vote. The 1980 Census indicated that 54% of the city’s Latino residents were not citizens.

But local political observers say more Latinos are getting settled and more involved in local politics.

In 1975, for example, Latinos accounted for 21% of the city’s registered voters, according to a survey by former council candidate Richard Loya. By 1988, Latinos made up 53.3% of the city’s 7,800 voters, according to a survey commissioned by the Los Angeles office of the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project.

The change apparently has favored Latino candidates because the incumbents’ margin of victory has been slipping over the years.

Perez came within 21 votes of being elected in 1988 even though he was outspent 5 to 1 by the joint campaign of two incumbents.

Cunningham and Roberts have lived and owned businesses in Huntington Park for years. They enjoy the support of a shrinking base of aging Anglo residents. They also have been able to win the support of key members of some members of the Latino business community, and some of the Latino voters.

Nevertheless, Cunningham and Roberts said they are walking more precincts than ever before.

And, so far, Cunningham and Roberts have been able to raise far more campaign money than their Latino challengers. As in past years, much of the incumbents’ campaign money comes from businessmen and developers who have built redevelopment projects in the city, according to campaign disclosure statements.

Perez appears to have drawn backing from Latino businessmen and longtime Latino and Anglo residents in Huntington Park. This is his sixth campaign for City Council.

Perez criticized the incumbents for the city’s financial problems at council meetings months ago. But he has been campaigning on his community service record, stressing his involvement in civic affairs, such as in the Lions Club. Some observers said Perez backed off to win favor with council supporters who would have voted for Hennes.

But Perez said he turned down offers of endorsements from Councilmen Thomas E. Jackson and Jack Parks.

“I’ve been at odds with them all these years,” Perez said. “I don’t want to owe anybody anything.”

Hernandez made his name in Huntington Park by campaigning against the failed utility tax last year and by constantly berating council members at their meetings.

“They are truly the fat cat incumbents,” Hernandez said. “The people of Huntington Park are yearning for change.”

The candidates have raised the following amounts as of March 24, according to campaign disclosure statements: Cunningham, $14,403; Roberts, $17,063, and Perez, $6,329. Hernandez has not turned in a campaign statement. Kartsman said he would raise and spend less than $1,000.