2 Races Slapped With Surprises as Campaigns Hit Home Stretch : Lawndale: Business group’s eleventh-hour flyer makes accusations against candidate in council race.

A pro-business political group sent an eleventh-hour mailer to Lawndale voters this week saying City Council candidate Gary McDonald faces two outstanding state income tax liens as well as an arrest warrant for failure to appear in court on a traffic citation.

McDonald, who labeled the tax liens a bureaucratic mistake, said he knows nothing about the arrest warrant or the traffic violation.

The mailer was sent to more than 4,700 voters by the Southern California Caucus, a regional political action committee that is supporting 20 candidates, including incumbent Inglewood Mayor Edward Vincent, in elections next week.

The organization, headquartered in Torrance, received initial funding support in 1987 from Los Angeles County Supervisor Pete Schabarum and has funneled about $78,700 into local races so far this year, according to campaign finance reports.

Caucus Director Tim Carey said McDonald is the only candidate his organization is actively campaigning against in this election. He said the group, which is largely composed of developers and business people, “felt Gary McDonald on the City Council would not be in the best interest of the citizens of Lawndale. The opinion we have is ‘anybody but Gary.’ ”

McDonald, a former planning commissioner and self-styled civic activist, is endorsed by Mayor Harold Hofmann and Councilman Larry Rudolph in the race for a vacant council seat. Also running for the council are aerospace engineer Norm Lagerquist, 35, purchasing agent Ron Maxwell, 27, and machine shop owner Bob Cerny, 72. Lagerquist, Maxwell and McDonald all made unsuccessful bids for a council seat in April.

The four-page flyer, which Carey said cost the Southern California Caucus more than $1,400 to send out, displays reproductions of the tax liens and states: “Lawndale City council candidate-Gary M. McDonald wants to spend your tax dollars. Yet he seems to have a problem paying his own.”

An official with the California Franchise Tax Board confirmed that two tax liens have been filed against McDonald, one in the amount of $1,655 for taxes owed in 1985 and the other in the amount of $2,219 for taxes owed in 1986. State records, disclosed with McDonald’s permission, show that McDonald did not file a tax return for either year.

McDonald, who touts himself as a watchdog over city corruption and frequently claims to have “saved the public more money than all of the other candidates put together,” said in an interview Wednesday that he has always filed his tax returns and that both of the tax liens against him are mistakes.

He said the government has somehow lost his tax forms for both years, and he displayed a W-2 form and a check stub that appeared to indicate that the state actually owes him money for taxes withheld.

But Jim Reber, a spokesman for the Franchise Tax Board, said it was extremely unlikely that the state would have lost McDonald’s tax forms two years in a row. He added that taxpayers do not get credit for withholding unless they file a return. Although McDonald was notified of the tax liens in October, 1987, and June, 1988, he has never submitted copies of his returns to clear up the issue, Reber said.

Records with the Department of Motor Vehicles also confirm that an arrest warrant is pending against McDonald for failing to appear in court on a traffic citation he received in November, 1989. At the time, he was also cited for driving without proof of insurance or current registration. His record also shows that his driving privileges have been suspended three times since June, 1988, for driving without proof of insurance.

McDonald said he is puzzled by the arrest warrant. He said he knew nothing of the alleged traffic citation, and he produced a receipt of correction dated Oct. 9 from Torrance Municipal Court showing that he has car insurance.

Initially calling the flyer “a cheap shot” and “a dirty political trick” by his opponents, McDonald later said: “Actually, I should feel very flattered by this, that an organization would spend thousands of dollars to keep me from winning office.”

Carey insisted that none of the other candidates had any knowledge of the mailer.

And although most of the other candidates acknowledged that the mailer would probably have an adverse affect on McDonald’s candidacy, none were willing to gloat about it. “I don’t like character assassination,” Cerny said, “especially at this late date.”

Said Lagerquist: “If Gary is guilty, it’s a matter between him and the IRS. I think we should get back to the issues.”

McDonald, who lost his April bid for a council seat by seven votes, has said his top priority as a councilman would be to fight gangs by seeing that crack houses are condemned and by improving coordination among sheriff’s deputies, community safety officers and city graffiti busters.

He also contends that there is too much “fat” at City Hall and has vowed to streamline city government by pushing to have some job positions eliminated and others consolidated.

While supporters have praised McDonald for his ability to cut through bureaucratic red tape to get things done, critics describe him as an abrasive crusader who has little regard for due process.

Despite the strong showing McDonald made in the April election, some of his staunchest supporters said he has not campaigned vigorously enough in the race. McDonald received $2,126 in campaign contributions through Oct. 20, less than any of his opponents, according to his latest campaign finance report.

Lagerquist, who placed about 30 votes behind McDonald in April and reported raising about $2,900 in campaign contributions through Oct. 20, “has been a very active campaigner with an active staff,” conceded McDonald supporter Jonathan Stein, a local developer.

Although Lagerquist frequently describes himself as the only candidate with management experience at a major corporation, some critics say the relative newcomer to Lawndale politics has too little experience for the job.

Endorsed by council members Carol Norman and William Johnson and Assemblyman Richard Floyd (D-Gardena), a Lawndale native, Lagerquist has campaigned on a pro-business platform, saying he would like to restore funding to the Lawndale Chamber of Commerce and eliminate parking restrictions along Hawthorne Boulevard, the city’s main commercial thoroughfare.

The vice president of a local homeowners group, Lagerquist disagrees with McDonald that City Hall is overstaffed and maintains instead that the city needs to replace short-term contract employees with permanent workers.

Lagerquist was criticized early in his campaign for stating that he has attended council meetings since he moved to Lawndale four years ago--a comment many council regulars said was a lie. But Lagerquist has since backed away from that claim, saying instead that he has attended “many, many council meetings” in the last four years.

Maxwell, who placed fifth in the council vote in April, has also campaigned vigorously. Still stinging from his ouster last year from the Parks, Recreation and Social Services Commission over a controversial mailer he sent out, Maxwell has produced campaign literature telling voters he was fired merely for “asking the citizens of Lawndale what they wanted from their Parks and Recreation Department.”

The City Council voted 3-2 to remove Maxwell from the commission after he distributed a flyer in which he used his title as a commissioner in urging residents to vote in last November’s city election. The flyer also included a small questionnaire on park issues.

A self-described fiscal conservative, Maxwell has reported raising more than $12,500 as of Oct. 30, nearly three times as much as Cerny, the next-highest fund-raiser, who received $4,400 in campaign contributions for the same period.

“Cerny and I are the only two running as independents,” Maxwell said. “The other two candidates have their own networking. They don’t have to work as hard as Cerny and I do.”

Both Maxwell and Cerny say that because they are not endorsed by any other council members, they will be more likely to cast independent votes on issues before the council.

Maxwell has made earthquake preparedness and the establishment of a Lawndale paramedic station major issues in his campaign, but has been criticized for campaign literature that suggests that the city would be “helpless in an emergency” because it relies on the county for disaster services.

Maxwell also has come under fire during this campaign for sending out a campaign mailer that had a public service announcement from the American Red Cross on its back. Red Cross officials, who do not endorse candidates, called the flyer a misunderstanding, saying they gave Maxwell permission to place his name on the earthquake survival announcement but did not know he planned to put the announcement on the back of a political statement.

Cerny, who lobbied to incorporate the city and was its first treasurer in 1959, said his main advantage over his opponents is high name recognition. Although he has never run for the council before, Cerny has lived in Lawndale for 44 years and recently served on the Planning Commission.

The city’s budget problems have been a major issue in Cerny’s campaign. He has proposed levying a small tax on doctors, attorneys and accountants who do business in Lawndale to generate the equivalent of additional sales tax revenue for the city.

He also said he would work to scrap a recent condominium ordinance that many residents have criticized as not requiring enough open space per unit. He also said he would establish an anti-crime commission to review how effectively the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department is policing the city.

Although Cerny often says he is the only candidate “with the diplomatic skills” to deal with the other council members, critics have frequently asked whether he is too old at 72 to be an effective councilman.

LAWNDALE COUNCIL CANDIDATES Bob Cerny

Age: 72

Occupation: Machine shop owner

Norm Lagerquist

Age: 35

Occupation: Aerospace engineer

Ron Maxwell

Age: 27

Occupation: Purchasing agent

Gary McDonald

Age: 30

Occupation: Development consultant