ELECTIONS / LANCASTER COUNCIL : First Black Wins Along With Root, Incumbent Rodio

Voters in Lancaster elected the high desert city’s first black councilman, one of two “managed growth” candidates who were elected along with an incumbent in the crowded race for three City Council seats.

The Rev. Henry Hearns, 56, finished second among 15 candidates in his first political bid, surprising many in the crowd watching the vote count Tuesday night at Lancaster City Hall.

The minister and former chief environmental engineer at Edwards Air Force Base appeared to strike a responsive chord with a campaign that emphasized his planning and engineering experience, his educational background and his religious vocation.

Hearns and his integrated campaign team said he will provide a new voice for the growing minority population in the city of 90,000 residents, which incorporated in 1977. About 5% of its population is black. But they said that race was not an issue and that voters selected Hearns because of his credentials.

“The voters saw a good, honest man and they voted for him,” said Milt Huckaby of the Lancaster Coalition of Neighborhood Organizations, a homeowner group whose endorsement boosted the candidacies of Hearns and fellow victor George Root over several better-financed candidates. “The man has got a tremendous amount of ability.”

Hearns, who retired in December after 32 years at the Air Force base, said at a quiet victory party in Lancaster early Wednesday that he was gratified by the response to his candidacy.

“I want to give thanks to the community for trusting me the first time around,” Hearns said. “What this tells me is that the people who know me know that I do my very best to be fair to everyone.”

Root, a 59-year-old administrator at Edwards Air Force Base and mobile home tenant activist, was the leading vote-getter with 3,938 votes, or 14.7% of the vote, in his third council bid. Hearns received 3,261 votes, 12.2%. Incumbent Arnie Rodio got 3,212 votes, 12.6%, to eke out a narrow reelection victory over Frank Roberts, a dean at Antelope Valley College. Two other incumbents did not seek reelection.

Hearns and Root both said they spent less than $10,000 each in a race where some front-runners who were identified with real estate and developer interests spent double and triple that amount. Hearns and Root were the only candidates backed by vigorous grass-roots efforts of the homeowner coalition.

Huckaby hailed the election as a clear message of dissatisfaction with a council that he said has been unresponsive to homeowners and overly influenced by developers in decisions regarding Lancaster’s rapid growth.

Root and Hearns said in separate interviews that they will emphasize careful planning and environmental study of projects such as a recent council decision to allow high-density housing development under the flight paths of Air Force Plant 42. That move was approved despite opposition by Air Force officials and community activists, and both Root and Hearns said they would have voted against it.

“The message was clear,” Root said of the election results. “People resented the influence of developers. People felt they did not have a vehicle to be fairly represented. . . . You can’t have slow growth; that’s a misnomer. But you can plan for growth.”

About 10,005 of Lancaster’s 39,336 registered voters cast ballots, a turnout that City Clerk Carla Johnson described as moderate.

LANCASTER

31 of 31 Precincts

CITY COUNCIL

Three vacancies

Candidate Vote George L. Root 3,937 Henry (Hank) Hearns 3,261 Arnie Rodio* 3,211 Frank Roberts 3,039 Carl (Duke) Bloom 2,178 June Snow 2,119 Jack Abney 2,118 Sandra Bateman 2,031 Ray Peeler 1,571 Michael Singer 1,195 Claude “Rocky” Pickering 497 Jeff Murray 460 Freddie Steese 429 Thomas E. Lacey 357 Anthony E. Tsaousis 122 Martha Hughes 98

BALLOT MEASURE

31 of 31 Precincts

A--”Shall the Lancaster School District incur a bonded indebtedness in the amount of not exceeding $47,000,000 to bear interest at a rate not exceeding twelve percent (12%) per annum, for the purposes of raising money for the purchasing of school lots; the building or purchasing of and the making of modernizations, alterations or additions (other than such as may be necessary for current maintenance, operation, or repairs) to school buildings, including but not limited to technology centers; the permanent improvement of school grounds; the carrying out of necessary or convenient sewage and drainage projects or purposes as authorized by Section 39613 of the California Education Code (Reorganized); and facilities incidental thereto?”

Preference Vote Yes 4,964 No 3,333