Part of the Plan : Mayor Rallies Youths in Effort to Shape City’s Future

It was not the toughest crowd that Bell Gardens Mayor Frank B. Duran had ever faced.

True, trying to get 375 fidgeting, jostling, giggling, sky-gazing 10- to 14-year-olds excited about the Bell Gardens General Plan was not exactly easy.

But on the other hand, at least no one threw any chairs at him.

“I think we got through to most of them,” Duran said optimistically, shortly after addressing an outdoor student assembly at Suva Intermediate School last week on the importance of the city’s new General Plan. “I think most of them were listening.”

Duran, who last month attracted citywide press attention when he was attacked by a chair-wielding City Council colleague during a riotous closed council meeting, exhorted the students to “do your civic duty” by coming up with suggestions for the new General Plan.

The General Plan, which all incorporated cities are required to have, will serve as a guideline for the next two decades for development within the city of 42,000 residents.

But not all of the students who were at the assembly seemed to have any idea what His Honor the mayor was talking about.

“I dunno,” said Jose Renteria, 14, when a reporter snagged him after the assembly and quizzed him on what a General Plan is.

“I dunno,” agreed Caleb Soto, 12, when faced with the same question.

But Alfredo Soto, 13, was able to give a pretty good working definition of a General Plan.

“It’s about building more things in the city and stuff,” Alfredo said.

The mayor’s appearance at Suva and other Bell Gardens schools last week was part of an effort by city officials to get young people--and through them their parents--interested in the new General Plan, which is in its preliminary stages.

Officials distributed about 16,000 questionnaires in the city’s four elementary schools, two intermediate schools and one high school, and have asked students and their parents to fill them out and return them for consideration by the city’s General Plan advisory committee. The questionnaires, which may be filled out in English or Spanish, ask the respondents to list their concerns and desires for the city.

Students who return the questionnaires will be given buttons that say, “We Have a Voice” and “ Nuestra Opinion Cuenta “ (“Our Opinion Counts.”)

“We hope it will make the entire community feel like part of the General Plan process,” City Planner Carmen Morales said. “And one of the best ways to do that is to get the kids involved.”

General plans and other zoning and development matters are hot issues in Bell Gardens. A 1991 attempt by the Bell Gardens City Council--then dominated by Anglo politicians--to redraw the city zoning map in favor of lower-density development sparked a backlash among the city’s Latino majority. They felt the council was being insensitive to the needs of lower-income people.

In a recall election, four Anglo council members were bounced, and in a special election last spring, they were replaced by a coalition that included three Latinos. Duran was among the new Latino majority.

In recent months, however, unity among the new council members has evaporated amid allegations of illegal hiring practices, racism and conflicts of interest at City Hall. Tension peaked last month when then-Mayor Josefina (Josie) Macias pushed then-Councilman Duran, and then threw a chair at him during a bitter closed council meeting.

Duran and other city officials denied that the current effort to involve schoolchildren in developing the city’s General Plan is designed to divert attention from the city’s political squabbles, although they agreed that the effort may help the city recapture the political unity of last spring.

“We just want everybody in this city to be involved,” Duran said.

City Planner Morales said the questionnaires distributed to Bell Gardens students will be collected this week and the results released next month.