ELECTIONS SAN FERNANDO : Acuna, Wysbeek, Hernandez Voted In

Mayor Daniel Acuna and Councilman Doude Wysbeek retained their seats on the San Fernando City Council by overwhelming margins Tuesday. Jose Hernandez, a planning commissioner, defeated five other candidates for a third open council seat.

With all but one precinct counted, Acuna, 49, was emerging as the top vote-getter with Wysbeek, 50, coming in second. Hernandez, 59, edged out Mary Jane Tuomy, 68, by less than 100 votes.

Voter turnout was light, with less than 25% of the city’s 5,763 registered voters going to the polls.

Acuna and Wysbeek were supported by Councilmen Jess Margarito and James B. Hansen, who were not up for election this year. Margarito also endorsed Hernandez, a professor of urban studies at Cal State Northridge.

Margarito joined Hansen in sending out a last-minute mailer to the city’s 5,763 voters on behalf of Wysbeek after he was quoted in El Ecco del Valle, a Spanish-language newspaper, as favoring Hernandez, Acuna and Robert Villafana. Margarito said the newspaper misunderstood his remarks.

The campaign for the three council seats was low-key, with candidates handing out flyers door-to-door, erecting signs in supporters’ yards and appearing at two public forums. All said they personally contacted as many voters as possible during their campaigns.

The candidates agreed on most issues, including the need to deal with graffiti, gangs, parking, and crowded and decaying housing. All said they want to attract new businesses while preserving the small-town character of the 2.4-square-mile city of 22,000.

Acuna, a real estate agent, was elected in 1986 as part of the first Latino council majority in the city’s history. During the campaign, Acuna said he wanted to continue programs he and the present council had initiated--including the building of replacement housing in the city’s decaying neighborhoods and renovation of the city’s parks.

In the future, he said, the City Council must initiate water conservation and recycling programs, create opportunities for first-time home buyers and attract better and more varied businesses to the community.

“We’ve brought a lot of new businesses to the community and we’re going to continue to build a strong economic base,” Acuna said.

Wysbeek, a small business owner, was first elected to the council in 1982, but was defeated for a second term in 1986. Last year, the council appointed him to complete the unexpired term of Roy Richardson, who resigned.

Wysbeek also said programs initiated by the present council should be continued. During his tenure, he said, the council “turned the city around,” financially--converting an almost $3 million budget deficit into a $2 million reserve.

“It’s time now to go forward on housing and the general appearance of the city,” he said. Tuomy, a 40-year resident of San Fernando, has been on the planning commission for six years, two of those as chairman. She also was a parks and recreation commissioner for six years.

Creating affordable housing heads her list of priorities. “I’d like to see us build a senior retirement hotel,” she said. “Something needs to be done about the aging housing, too.”