Mayor, Council Runoffs Look Fiery but May Lack Spark : Redondo Beach: Despite high stakes, voters appear to be apathetic, city clerk says. Write-in candidates could complicate results in two of the races.

At first glance, Tuesday’s runoff election for the Redondo Beach mayor’s post and two City Council seats has all the makings of a fiery showdown.

Incumbent Mayor Brad Parton, who was trounced in his bid for the Assembly last year, is fighting to save his political career in a runoff against former Councilman Ron Cawdrey and write-in candidate Chris Boyle.

In the District 2 council race, three men--Rick Abelson, Greg Hill and write-in candidate Sal Princiotta--are competing for an open seat. In District 4, Robert Pinzler is challenging incumbent Terry Ward.

In an unusual twist, the possibility of another runoff looms if the two write-in hopefuls prevent the candidates on the ballot from securing more than 50% of the vote.

But if the meager attendance at a candidates’ debate last week was any indication, Redondo Beach voters consider the election a real snooze.

City Clerk John L. Oliver said he will be surprised if more than 15% of the city’s 36,000 registered voters, about 5,400 people, make it to the polls Tuesday.

Voter apathy notwithstanding, the stakes of the election are inordinately high.

To cope with projected reductions in state funding, elected leaders will have to choose between paring an already lean city budget or taking the unpopular step of raising taxes. Deft leadership will be needed to steer the city’s pier and library reconstruction projects and to attract new businesses to revitalize the city’s slumping economy.

“When times are easy, it doesn’t really take the hard decisions,” said John Parsons, president of the city’s Economic Development Council and president-elect of the Chamber of Commerce. “But this is an important time.”

THE MAYOR’S RACE

Even though he received nearly 45% of the vote in the general election in March, Parton is pulling no punches this time around.

He still owes creditors more than $35,000 for his Assembly bid, but those debts have not slowed his spending in the mayoral race. As of April 24, Parton had chalked up more than $22,000 in expenditures.

By the same date, Cawdrey had spent $6,300. He expects to spend an additional $5,000 by Tuesday.

Cawdrey, who served on the Redondo Beach City Council from 1982 to 1991, raised his eyebrows at Parton’s spending, saying the incumbent appears to be running scared. But Parton said Cawdrey is just waiting until the last minute to open his wallet.

Campaign spending habits are not the only financial matters on which the two candidates differ.

Parton, a 32-year-old businessman, is optimistic about the finances of the city, which recently underwent a major downsizing. Noting that the city’s budget shows a $1.5-million surplus, Parton believes city officials can weather the next round of cuts without having to raise taxes, even if projections showing a $3-million reduction in state revenue prove correct.

“I’m not going to pull a George Bush and say ‘Read my lips, no new taxes.’ To me, it’s a last resort,” Parton said. “But if it ever got down to a reduction in essential city services, obviously I would support the appropriate revenue increase then.”

Cawdrey, 56, who works part-time as a legislative analyst for a local labor union, calls Parton unrealistic.

“I don’t think $1.5 million is anywhere near adequate,” Cawdrey said. “I would say (reserves) should probably be in the $5-million range.”

Cawdrey also blames Parton for delays in reconstruction of the pier after a series of devastating storms and a fire that destroyed major sections of it in 1988.

“I believe Brad dropped the ball by not forcing the issue,” Cawdrey said. “Instead of going back to more and more public hearings, sooner or later someone has to say OK, we’ve done enough. Let’s go forward.”

Parton, however, noted that while Cawdrey was a councilman, he voted to put the pier issue to a public vote, and that led to years of delays.

Parton also criticized Cawdrey for suing the city in 1991 in a bid to overturn an ordinance limiting council members to two terms. Parton said that suit has so far cost the city $125,000. Cawdrey called the suit, which is still pending, worthwhile.

About the only issue on which the candidates are in accord is their annoyance with the antics of write-in candidate Chris Boyle, who has brought stuffed animals to public forums and tried to provoke debate with Parton during council meetings.

Boyle, 35, a certified public accountant who received 6% of the vote in the general election, proposes changing the way local businesses are taxed to raise more money for city coffers. His plan, which would levy taxes based on a percentage of business payroll expenses, would raise $850,000 a year, Boyle estimates.

“A vote for Cawdrey or Parton is the same vote,” Boyle said. “They have the same style--the old style. They are both motivated by ego and power.”

DISTRICT 2

The competition to fill the District 2 seat vacated by Kay Horrell has produced the most fireworks in the local campaign. Abelson, an urban planner and top vote-getter in the March election, has repeatedly called for his opponent, Hill, to withdraw from the contest or resign from his job as a gas company manager.

Abelson charges that state conflict-of-interest laws would require Hill, if elected, to exclude himself from virtually every significant issue facing the city because of his position with the Southern California Gas Co.

“The voters know this just doesn’t pass the smell test,” said Abelson, 32.

Hill, 34, admits that he would have had to excuse himself from a recent city vote to grant the gas company a 25-year franchise in Redondo Beach. But other than that, Hill says, he would be eligible to participate in any other city matter.

“This is a non-issue,” Hill said. “I hope the public can see this for what it is.”

The California Fair Political Practices Commission has offered no definitive ruling on whether Abelson’s accusations have merit. According to a commission official, Hill would have to disqualify himself from participating in any decision that would have a “material” financial effect on the gas company.

Write-in candidate Princiotta, 44, a public affairs official with an Inglewood-based rare coin company, recently joined the fray by leveling conflict-of-interest charges against Abelson, who is employed by Gruen Associates, a Los Angeles-based architectural firm.

Princiotta argues that since Gruen Associates has conducted business with the city in the past and may again in the future, Abelson would have to sit out on votes regarding development matters. Abelson denied that a conflict of interest exists, and produced a letter from a managing partner pledging that the firm would not do anything to jeopardize Abelson’s integrity as a council member.

All the candidates agree the city faces a rocky financial road ahead. To cope with an immediate budget shortfall, they all support paring city government in some fashion.

“There’s going to be some harsh realities in City Hall,” Abelson said.

Both Abelson and Hill stopped short of saying they would impose a tax increase to keep the city solvent. Princiotta said he would oppose any move to hike city taxes.

Longer-term budget solutions, said Abelson, could be accomplished by opening up the north Catalina corridor to redevelopment, and by capitalizing more on the city’s pier and harbor area.

“They (the pier and harbor) could be the golden goose for the city,” said Abelson, chairman of the Redondo Beach Harbor Commission.

Princiotta said he would propose opening a card club for gambling to generate more revenue, and would form a think tank that “could solve any problem the city could deal it.”

Hill has spent $11,046 in his bid for office, but none of it in the last reporting period between March 28 and April 24, according to city campaign statements. Abelson has spent $7,400, which includes $1,563 in the last reporting period. No records were available for Princiotta.

DISTRICT 4

In District 4, the candidates have made crime a central campaign issue. Challenger Pinzler has aggressively attacked incumbent Ward by contending that although Ward touts his tough stance on crime, he has failed to deliver.

District 4, which covers the northeast portion of the city, accounts for 42% of Redondo Beach’s crime, the highest of any district. Pinzler said Ward has been unable to stem the district’s growing tide of graffiti.

“He can’t defend his record,” Pinzler said at a candidates’ forum last week that Ward did not attend. “He’s a failed councilman and he can’t stand the heat.”

Pinzler, 43, a marketing consultant, wants to place a police substation in the district.

But Ward, a 55-year-old data processing consultant, says Pinzler’s accusations are part of his opponent’s “big lie” campaign. The Galleria at South Bay, with its high incidence of shoplifting, creates a misleading impression about the district’s true crime rate, Ward said.

“What is a councilman supposed to do about crime?” Ward asked. “All he can do is support the police and fire departments. A councilman can’t go out and pound people.”

Both Pinzler and Ward said they favor making parents of juvenile offenders pay the cost of removing the graffiti left by their children.

The other major issue is coping with the probable city budget shortfall. Both candidates say a tax increase would be a last resort, and both agree the budget could be streamlined further.

“We have to reduce,” Ward said. “We have a huge staff. I’m not proposing layoffs, but we have to exist.”

Ward said he would reject proposals to slash funds for the police or fire departments. Pinzler, too, would balk at such cuts, but did call for restructuring departments if they are “top-heavy.”

Ward has spent almost twice as much on the campaign as Pinzler. Ward has paid out $3,768 in campaign expenses, while Pinzler, who has funded his campaign partly through obtaining personal loans, has spent $1,999, according to finance records.