Council Overrides Mayor’s 1st Usage of His Veto Power : Spending: Councilmen back Warren Harwood in turning back Mayor Ernie Kell’s bid to save $236,000 targeted for restroom construction at Houghton Park.

Public restrooms inspired Mayor Ernie Kell’s first veto this week, but it was quickly overridden by City Council members who decided that users of a North Long Beach park shouldn’t have to wait for toilets.

Citing the city’s money shortage, Kell vetoed a package of budget adjustments because they included $236,000 for construction of new restrooms at Houghton Park.

“It’s a fiscal issue,” Kell said later. “We are faced with some of the tightest budget constraints since I’ve been on the council in 1975.

“There are not many places where we have the opportunity to adjust the General Fund to the tune of $236,000 without hurting many people,” said Kell, who became Long Beach’s first full-time mayor in 1988. “If we can’t put this project off, I don’t know what we can put off.”

Houghton Park lies in Councilman Warren Harwood’s district, and it did not go unnoticed by the council member, who often feuds openly with the mayor on matters large and small.

“You’ve obviously targeted somebody who disagrees with you,” Harwood protested, saying that the restrooms were badly needed. “Little kids are using the bushes . . . this is damaging them.”

Retorted Kell: “I resent your behavior and your unethical remarks. . . . You’re constantly talking about saving money as long as it doesn’t affect you.”

Usually it is Harwood who attacks the mayor for not being frugal enough.

Denying that politics were involved, Kell pointed out that he had also opposed funding for a new $226,000 restroom in a park in Councilman Clarence Smith’s district, but he later changed his mind because killing the project would have meant the loss of $42,000 in state money for the restrooms.

Although $130,000 of the Houghton Park funding also comes from the state, the money does not have the same strings attached and Kell argued that it could have been spent on more urgent needs, freeing up city money.

Council members, while saying they understood Kell’s concerns, sided with Harwood, unanimously overriding Kell’s veto. Councilmen Wallace Edgerton, Les Robbins, Evan Anderson Braude and Ray Grabinski were absent.

“These things have to be done one time or another,” commented Councilman Douglas Drummond.

After the meeting, Harwood was gleeful. “That was the first veto, and it had to do with toilets,” he chortled, calling Kell’s action “an experience in impotence.”

But Kell, who has no vote on the council, promised that he is going to start exercising his veto whenever he spies unnecessary spending.

“We are going in the wrong direction. We need to put the brakes on,” he said.