Allegations of Politics Rain on MLK Parade

Just whose parade is it anyway? Martin Luther King Jr.’s or Clarence Smith’s?

Saturday’s local cable television broadcast of the annual Martin Luther King Jr. parade in Long Beach has sparked allegations that City Councilman Smith used his influence to get a supporter of one of his election opponents kicked off the parade show.

The opponent, Doris Topsy-Elvord, says that when Smith found out last week that one of the two co-hosts of the parade broadcast, Tonia Uranga, was a supporter of hers, Smith successfully pressured the cable company to replace Uranga with a supporter of his.

“I think his behavior is disgraceful,” asserted Topsy-Elvord, who Thursday sent letters of complaints to both the district attorney’s office and the state Fair Political Practices Commission. “It’s an abuse of power. It’s misconduct.”

In her letters, she noted that the council will soon be voting on the $132.5-million sale of the local cable franchise by Simmons Cable Communications of Long Beach to a New York-based cable company.

Smith could not be reached for comment. But officials at Simmons denied the allegations. They said Uranga had been asked to host the parade show before they consulted with Smith about the parade coverage, as they routinely have in the past. When they did talk to Smith, he suggested a couple of other people, so they abided by his wishes.

“I usually have Clarence pick whoever he wants,” said Frank McNellis, general manager of Simmons, who described Smith as the parade’s principal organizer. “But that’s certainly not wrongdoing. We see it as his parade. . . . It should be his shot to call.”

According to Uranga, someone on Smith’s staff asked her over the Christmas holidays to be on the parade show. “(Wednesday) night I was told by the producer that I wasn’t doing it anymore. . . . I was told it was at Smith’s request.”