Friend Confesses Killing Ex-Mayor : San Fernando: Michael Sagor, who had also served as city administrator, was found dead at his home after an acquaintance told San Francisco police he shot him to death.

A controversial former mayor of San Fernando was found dead in his home Thursday after a close friend walked into a San Francisco police station and confessed shooting him to death, police said.

The body of Michael Sagor, 47, was discovered about noon in his home in the 1000 block of North Workman Street after San Fernando police received notification of the killing from San Francisco police, San Fernando Police Lt. Rico Castro said.

Sagor, who was known for his fiery temper, served on the City Council from 1976 to 1980 and was mayor in 1980. He decided not to seek reelection and was appointed city administrator, a post he held until quitting in 1982.

Officers broke into Sagor’s house after being told that Andreas (Andrew) Bechtler, 26, of San Fernando, surrendered Thursday to San Francisco police and told them he had killed Sagor last week, Castro said. Bechtler was being held without bail in San Francisco.

Detectives knew of no reason for the killing, Castro said, but it appeared to center around “a dispute between friends.” Robbery was not the motive, he said. Nothing was stolen from the home and Bechtler apparently entered without using force, Castro said.

Mike Majers, 43, who served on the City Council with Sagor, said Sagor and Bechtler had been friends for six or seven years but “had a falling out about a couple months ago.”

Majers said the two frequently came into his San Fernando liquor store to cash checks that Sagor received from rental properties. Bechtler sometimes cashed Sagor’s checks with Sagor’s permission, Majers said.

But in February, Bechtler cashed two of Sagor’s traveler’s checks--one for $500 and another for $595--at the liquor store after the two had quarreled, Majers said.

“Mike was real uptight after he found out about the checks a few days later,” Majers said. “Apparently he didn’t know Andrew was still in town . . . He asked me not to report anything to police.”

“Michael was very outspoken and very opinionated,” said San Fernando City Councilman Jim Hansen, who said he first met Sagor when they were children at a grocery store where Sagor’s father worked as a produce man and Hansen’s father was a butcher.

“He made a lot of friends as well as a lot of enemies,” Hansen said.

When Sagor was city administrator in the early 1980s, several candidates ran for City Council on a platform “of replacing him and changing the direction of the city,” Hansen said.

The day after some of the candidates won election, Sagor cleaned out his desk and resigned, Hansen said.

Majers said Sagor told him he “didn’t need the aggravation . . . in this city anymore. A lot of the business people didn’t like him. He wouldn’t give away city money to help the Chamber of Commerce.”

“You either loved him or hated him,” Majers said. “He was a very demanding person. We would go into a restaurant and if he wasn’t served right away, he’d get angry and start a scene.”