Latinos Make Gains in Council Elections : Politics: For the first time, they win majorities in South Gate and Baldwin Park and pick up seats in four other cities. Recently elected Bell Gardens board members retain seats.

Latinos won their first majorities on the South Gate and Baldwin Park city councils Tuesday and maintained their recently won control in Bell Gardens, in a show of political force by an ethnic group that makes up nearly 40% of the county’s population.

The election results provided a common thread on a day when voters in more than 60 communities went to the polls--apparently rejecting five tax measures, a card club in Baldwin Park, and a measure to slow growth in the Antelope Valley community of Santa Clarita.

Latinos also picked up seats in four other cities: Azusa, where challenger Cristina Cruz Madrid was leading incumbent Harry L. Stemrich; in Rosemead, where Joe Vasquez appeared to be on his way to victory over three-term incumbent Jay T. Imperial; in Cudahy, where David Silva was elected, and in Maywood, which elected Dorothy Ramirez. However, they failed to win majorities on the councils in Cudahy and Maywood.

Chinese-American candidates also made inroads, electing Paul Zee as the first Chinese-American council member in South Pasadena and placing Ben Wong on the West Covina council.

With only absentee ballots uncounted in South Gate, Albert T. Robles and Jerry M. Garcia led incumbents Robert A. Philipp and Gregory W. Slaughter. Robles and Garcia would join Johnny Ramirez on the City Council in South Gate, a city that is 83% Latino.

In Baldwin Park, Fidel Vargas, a 23-year-old Harvard graduate, was elected mayor, capitalizing on widespread feelings of disenchantment with gangs and graffiti to easily beat incumbent Betty Lowes and Bobbie Izell. “Now we need to find some way to bring additional resources to the police force,” said the business analyst.

Councilman Martin Gallegos, who was appointed to fill a vacancy in 1990, was the biggest vote-getter among eight Baldwin Park candidates for two council seats. Raul Martinez edged the rest of the field, including incumbent Herschel Keyser, for the second post.

Latinos were celebrating after maintaining a council majority they won last month in Bell Gardens, following the recall of four Anglo council members in December.

Supporters took the victory of Rodolfo (Rudy) Garcia, Frank B. Duran and George T. Deitch as a sign that Latinos are on the move politically in the southeast portion of the county. All finished far ahead of the fourth-place candidate, earning four-year terms on the council, where they join Josefina (Josie) Macias, who had earned a two-year term after a recall election.

“The people have spoken,” Garcia said. “They are finally going to get the representation they deserve. The victory in Bell Gardens is . . . going to mushroom into all the other communities.”

Effusive supporters chanted “Viva La Raza!” and “The people united will never be defeated!” State Sen. Art Torres (D-Los Angeles) told the boisterous crowd that the vote was a “turning point for the Hispanic community.”

In Monterey Park, Chinese-Americans apparently failed to gain a majority on the City Council. In unofficial returns, incumbent Judy Chu and Rita Valenzuela apparently won the two open seats on the council.

Physician Allan K. Yung, a Chinese-American, was losing his bid to win a seat in San Marino.

Although the ethnic candidates reflect demographic changes that are sweeping the county, voters in other cities were attending to more parochial concerns.

In Malibu, voters in early returns were favoring a faction that has portrayed itself as the true protector of the community’s semi-rural character.

Incumbent Councilwoman Carolyn Van Horn and contenders Joan House and Jeff Kramer were well ahead of their opponents, including incumbents Mike Caggiano and Missy Zeitsoff.

The front-runners had formed a powerful alliance with the entertainment community. Entertainment moguls such as Jeffrey Katzenberg, chairman of the Walt Disney Co., and Robert Daly, chairman of Warner Studios, were among the contributors to a group that supports the trio. Actor Jack Lemmon took out an advertisement in a local paper to back the slate.

In five other cities, voters were set to decide whether to raise taxes to pay for capital projects or improved services:

Voters in Rancho Palos Verdes rejected a measure that would have levied a tax of $200 per single-family home to shore up a $3-million shortage of funds in a $7.5-million budget.

The measure lost by about 400 votes.

“This just means we’ve got to do with less to operate the city,” said City Manager Paul Bussey. “We’ll do the best we can.”

In Baldwin Park and Monrovia, measures proposing extra taxes to improve police services were also going down to defeat. In El Segundo, early votes showed a tax measure to benefit schools falling short of the two-thirds needed for passage. In Palmdale, voters were rejecting an advisory measure asking to assess residents a fee to build a $24-million recreation center.

In Santa Clarita, a slow-growth initiative, known as Measure A, was failing in early returns. It would allow the city to approve 475 new housing units annually through 2002. It was proposed by Citizens for a Responsible Residential Initiative on Growth.

Fireworks could be banned in two cities, Hawaiian Gardens and Palmdale, that have permitted “safe and sane” pyrotechnics.

In Hawaiian Gardens, the vote on the measure was a dead heat with all six precincts reporting. Absentee ballots also remained to be counted.

In Beverly Hills, Vice Mayor Bernard Hecht, who was slated to become mayor, was defeated by Thomas S. Levyn.