Hawaiian Gardens : Mayor, Vice Mayor Resign Amid Squabble Over Fence

H.M. (Lennie) Wagner and Domenic Ruggeri resigned their mayoral and vice mayoral posts respectively on the Hawaiian Gardens City Council last week amid charges by three other council members that the two used city funds to help get a fence built at the mobile home park where they both live.

Wagner and Ruggeri denied any wrongdoing. Ruggeri said this week that the fence issue was just a diversionary tactic to cover the fact that they were ousted from their ceremonial posts because they would not be 100% loyal to Councilwoman Kathleen Navejas. Ruggeri said he and Wagner resigned after learning that Navejas had the three votes necessary to remove them.

“The entire council agreed a wall was needed back in April,” Wagner said.

“This is no conflict of interest; 300 people live there,” Ruggeri said. “Most of them are low-income senior citizens.” The fence, he said, is needed to keep vandals and burglars out of the mobile home park.

Money for the fence was obtained by the park’s owner through a Redevelopment Agency grant, and the Planning Department approved the fence plans, Ruggeri said.

Redevelopment Agency attorney Graham Ritchie said that no laws were broken and that there was no conflict of interest in having the fence built.