His Long Wait for Council Seat Pays Off

Shoulder-length hair and progressivism distinguished Richard (Ric) Loya when he first tried for the Huntington Park City Council in 1976.

He was soundly defeated that year, and also lost in 1978 and 1980 by closer margins.

But now, at age 45, with his viewpoints the same but his hair shorter, Loya is at last a councilman. He was appointed a month ago to fill the seat vacated by Jack W. Parks, who died of a heart attack Aug. 28.

For years Loya was dissatisfied because Latinos were not represented in Huntington Park. And though he quit running for office because “I was getting broke and I just decided this wasn’t what the people wanted,” he now knows he must finally put up or shut up.

“If I can’t accomplish something in five months, people ought to vote me out,” said the Huntington Park High School health teacher, who will serve until April and then plans to seek reelection.

The city of 54,000, about 50,000 of whom are Latino, has for the first time a Latino majority on the five-member City Council. It had never had a Latino council member until 1990.

“The traditional charge in the past has been that the Anglos didn’t understand (the needs of Latinos), that it was the Anglos’ fault,” Loya said. “Now if anything goes wrong we can’t blame the Anglos, it’s the Latinos’ fault.”

In his new role, Loya has attended two council meetings. “At the first one I felt like an ignorant fool,” he said. “I was not aware of some of the issues, I was kind of blind. At the second meeting I was more aware. I’ve been talking to residents.”

He believes that he can get more people involved by holding council meetings at various sites. “If we move a couple to the YMCA or a park, when people get used to it, they’ll pack them,” he predicted.

A Latino majority does not assure smooth sailing for Loya’s ideas. He is a liberal Democrat. The other two Latino councilmen, Luis Hernandez and Raul Perez, are conservative Republicans, although they sometimes take opposite sides on issues.

The Anglo members of the council are Thomas E. Jackson and William P. Cunningham, longtime Huntington Park residents who tend to vote similarly.

“I anticipate a lot of split votes,” Loya said. “You’ll see mix-and-match all over the place.”

Looking back to his early years in politics, Loya believes he was ahead of his time. “When I first ran I had a platform of 16 ideas. They included ideas on gangs, although the city said there were no gangs, and also on community meetings and getting more police. From the traditional council view, that was being ahead of the times. Now it appears right on target.”

Loya would like to see a 3% utility tax for law enforcement on the April ballot. In 1989, voters rejected a 7% utility tax.

“I’ve already been told that could hurt me politically,” he said. “But we need to get (more) policemen and put them on the blocks where people live so we can feel safer. We see them on the main boulevards, but for those of us paying our property taxes, I want that damn cop on my block.”

The new councilman lives on Hill Street in an area that is mostly homes. “I look out and see lawns well-trimmed,” he said “But graffiti is just starting at the end of the block and that bugs the hell out of me. And there are a few gang bangers on the block.”

But Loya, who has received national recognition for AIDS classes he teaches at Huntington Park High, senses a new spirit in the city.

“Ten years ago Hispanics were still arriving and having to sit and wait,” he said. “Now everybody’s been here 10 years. It’s our town now. What are we going to do about it?”

* Hui Kyung (Tina) Kim of Long Beach Poly High School has won a $10,000 scholarship and been named most promising future business leader by Executive Women International. A straight-A senior who excels in math, Kim also was honored for her community service. She has been a volunteer in the maternity ward of Long Beach Memorial Medical Center and has been involved in aiding the homeless and trying to keep youngsters from drugs and gangs.

* Mary Klingensmith, a longtime volunteer and former president of the Long Beach Cancer League, has been named the 1991 Rick Racker Woman of the Year for raising money for cancer research. The Rick Rackers are the junior auxiliary of the Assistance League of Long Beach.

* David Witzling, 8, of Long Beach, who saved his family’s housekeeper from drowning, is one of 10 children to receive the G.I. Joe Real American Hero award. David pulled the woman from a back-yard swimming pool, began artificial respiration and helped give CPR until medical help arrived.

The 10 award winners, chosen for performing courageous deeds or excelling in service to the community or environment, were honored at a ceremony in Washington put on by Hasbro Inc., a toy company that makes G.I. Joe.

* Msgr. Ernest J. Gualderon, pastor of St. Anthony Church in Long Beach, is honorary chairman of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Long Beach partnership campaign for 1991-92. Gualderon will be responsible for raising money to offset a 17% cut in United Way support for the clubs, which provide alternatives to crime, gangs and drugs.

* Dusty Rhodes, 66, of Norwalk recently competed in the 1991 Senior Slow-Pitch Softball World Series in West Palm Beach, Fla., on a Fullerton team sponsored by Secure Horizons, a health-care plan for Medicare recipients.

“The thing I like best is it keeps me active,” said Rhodes, whose team did not reach the championship round of the series. “I play four times a week. I believe it puts years on a guy’s life. The competition is great, but I’m not out for blood like I used to be.”

Rhodes is a distant cousin of Dusty Rhodes, hero for the New York Giants in the 1954 World Series against Cleveland.

* R.R. Estes has been named general manager of the engineered products division of WesTech Gear Corp. of Lynwood.