Voters Face an Array of Personalities, Ideologies

One thing 4th District voters can’t complain about is a lack of choice. Whether it’s political philosophy, personality or age, the candidates offer some clear-cut differences.

There is Thomas Clark, the unflappable senior member of the council who has been in office since 1966--the year after Charles G. (Jerry) Westlund, a brash auctioneer, was born. Then there is Donald Pound, a refrigeration contractor, and Sharon Lee Douglass, a neighborhood activist who has made a vocation of scolding city leaders.

Westlund, Clark’s most aggressive opponent, is brandishing a conservative spear with the slogan: “It’s time to get tough.”

His anti-tax talk has been tough enough to earn the support of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn., and his pro-business talk has earned him the endorsement of the Long Beach Board of Realtors.

He condemns tax increases approved by the council in recent years, calling instead for cuts--in council expenses, in social services and in the city’s Rose Parade float. He questions the need for the city’s Health Department and says he has “no doubt there are a number of city services that could be contracted out” to private firms.

Until recently a co-host of a public affairs show on local cable television, Westlund says he has not decided whether Long Beach should replace its Police Department with citywide sheriff’s patrols.

But, he added, “to blindly commit ourselves to saving the Police Department at any cost is poor judgment and poor business.”

Clark--an optometrist who came within a few hundred votes of being elected mayor in 1990--is more calm and deliberate in his pronouncements. He has followed a moderately liberal course.

Clark, who is supported by city firefighters and the police union, opposes the abolition of the Police Department. He has long favored the establishment of police substations and voted for the Citizen Police Complaint Commission, which reviews brutality allegations.

He voted with the council majority to raise utility taxes and fees in recent years rather than make deep budget cuts. “I think we’ve tried to strike a balance. The taxes we’ve added have been fundamentally to add to (the Police) Department.” Now, he noted, the council has no choice but to make cuts.

Clark voted for revisions in local zoning laws that reduced density limits throughout much of the city, including its main corridors. Westlund favors higher density along some corridors.

Douglass and Pound want to keep the Police Department. Douglass, who has often complained about high-density development, has been endorsed by several neighborhood groups.