Redevelopment Foes Charge Fraud : North Hollywood: At a contentious meeting, several recently elected panelists are rejected. A faction of opponents seize control of the proceeding.

Accusing officials of destroying ballots and miscounting votes, a disgruntled faction of a citizens committee that advises on redevelopment in North Hollywood has refused to seat five recently elected members to the panel and is calling for a new election.

The faction of redevelopment opponents essentially took control of the committee and repeatedly refused to allow redevelopment advocates to speak--often shouting the advocates down--at an emotionally charged meeting Tuesday.

The action has left officials with the city and its Community Redevelopment Agency searching for ways to resolve the most tumultuous dispute to hit the panel, known as the Project Area Committee (PAC), since 1990, when fistfights broke out at a meeting.

“We have a problem,” said Jerry Belcher, project manager for the CRA’s North Hollywood Redevelopment Project. “We’re discussing what needs to be done.”

Belcher and Councilman John Ferraro said they would wait until city attorneys had reviewed the situation to determine what action to take.

A meeting at Saint David’s Episcopal Church disintegrated when the anti-redevelopment faction of the PAC quickly passed a motion seating only two of seven recently elected members. Faction members argued that the other five had not won a majority because ballots were improperly counted.

But Guy W. McCreary, president of North Hollywood Citizens for Progress, a pro-growth, pro-CRA group, on Wednesday accused the committee of using “communist, facist” tactics in an effort to “grab control of the PAC.

“Basically, it was an honest election,” McCreary said. “The PAC people should be put into place.” Six of the seven recently elected were part of his group’s slate.

The PAC has no legislative powers and advises the CRA on redevelopment in a 740-acre section of North Hollywood.

The refusal of the anti-redevelopment faction to seat the new committee members left some in the audience confused and angry Tuesday night. But the faction held firm and refused to allow debate on its actions.

Striking a gavel and declaring speakers “out of order,” acting Chairwoman Maria Fant repeatedly refused to allow other PAC members or city officials--including CRA attorney Mike Montoya and an aide to Ferraro--to discuss the balloting issue.

“I’m going to throw him out if he doesn’t behave himself,” said PAC member Don Eaton, standing as Montoya attempted to speak.

The discussion quickly turned to whether the meeting was even legal.

“Basically this is not a PAC meeting anymore,” said Renee Weitzer, aide to Councilman John Ferraro. “They’re making up their own rules.”

“It’s a railroad!” shouted people from the audience.

Several members of the committee stormed out and about half of the audience left, leaving seven PAC members to conduct their own meeting, while those opposed stood outside the doors of the church.

City officials said the meeting was invalid because the PAC must have at least 14 members present to have a quorum.

PAC member Don Eitner, who huffed out of the meeting, accused PAC member Mildred Weller and others of meeting in private before the meeting to plot a takeover.

“They’re trying to rig the election . . . I refuse to be a part of an illegal action by a subversive group,” Eitner said.

The committee can have as many as 25 members, but membership sometimes varies, depending on how many candidates receive a majority of the vote. During the election last month, seven citizens appeared to have won PAC seats. But the committee’s bylaws require that winning candidates receive the votes of a majority of registered voters in the redevelopment area, Weller said. Several blank ballots were not counted, she said, so five of the winning candidates received a majority of the votes cast but not of the total number of registered voters.

“If you dispose of some of the ballots in the box you can get any count you want,” Weller said.

At the meeting Tuesday night, committee members read two affidavits signed by Darla Pelton and Morris Litwack, who said they helped a consulting firm count ballots after the election and witnessed blank ballots being discarded or put aside.

“The election had some serious problems and we’ve been able to prove it,” said Weller, who was elected chairwoman of the PAC on Tuesday. “We have every legal right to do what we did.”

As for not allowing residents or city representatives to speak, Weller said the committee did allow a public comment period near the end of the meeting at 11 p.m. “They chose to leave,” she said. “There was ample opportunity for them to speak their opinions.”

CRA project manager Belcher said there was no irregularity in the election. Blank ballots are never counted, he said. “If you don’t do anything, it doesn’t count,” Belcher said.

Officials for the county registrar of voters and city of Los Angeles said ballots that are not punched in county and city elections are not tallied by the computer.

Weller said the PAC members would vote in April to fill the vacancies on the committee.

Weller’s group opposes the use of tax dollars for redevelopment and also opposes the agency’s power of eminent domain, which allows it to force property owners to sell for the purpose of redevelopment.

McCreary counters that North Hollywood had benefited from the work of the CRA. New apartments have been built, homes refurbished with low-interest loans, and private enterprise has been drawn to the area, he said.