Council Urged to Reconsider Renaming of Gen. Scott Park : Carson: Commission backs effort to change name in honor of Harry T. Foisia, a former city worker of Samoan descent.

The Human Relations Commission in Carson has recommended that the City Council reconsider a proposal by a residents’ group to rename a city park in honor of a former city worker of Samoan descent.

In a 6-1 vote, the commission said the citizens’ group had been treated unfairly by the City Council because it was required to excessively document public support for the renaming of Gen. Winfield Scott Park.

The group wants to rename the park in honor of Harry T. Foisia, the city code enforcement manager who died in December, 1990.

“I firmly, firmly believe that this man should be honored in this way,” said commission member Ben Kimball. “There has never been a man who has received more acclaim from others in the city than Harry Foisia. My particular feeling was Gen. Winfield Scott was a great man back in 1847. But Harry was an outstanding man in the city of Carson in today’s world.”

Mayor Michael I. Mitoma, who has opposed the renaming of the park, said he remains unswayed by the commission’s recommendation.

“It’s their prerogative to make a recommendation. . . . It’s not going to change my vote.”

Myron Thompson, chairman of the committee to rename the park, criticized Mitoma for having a “dictator-type attitude. For someone who talks so much about due process . . . he’s really saying ‘To hell with it.’ ”

Foisia volunteered many hours to help troubled youths until his death of natural causes at the age of 39. Foisia was instrumental in starting Samoan Athletes in Action, which brought professional athletes of Samoan heritage to Gen. Winfield Scott Park to run football clinics for area youth.

Last June, the council chose to honor Foisia by placing his name above the emergency operations center in the City Hall basement where he worked. The decision triggered a storm of protests, as did subsequent delays in reconsidering the issue.

The proposal again went down in defeat last October on a 2-2 vote, which supporters decried as racist. The renaming committee pointed to the relative ease with which the city dedicated four other parks, naming three for African-Americans and another for former Councilman John Calas, who was white and the late husband of current Councilwoman Kay A. Calas.