BELL GARDENS : Ombudsman Job Remains Unfilled

Nearly three months after the City Council approved hiring an ombudsman to investigate residents’ complaints about city employees, the position remains vacant.

“Under normal conditions, a project like this would probably get off the ground because it’s not that complicated,” City Manager Charles Gomez said. “But the people involved in this are involved in a million other things, and (panel members) probably put this issue on the back burner and inadvertently left it on the back burner.”

The ombudsman is intended to ease tensions among council members and residents who have repeatedly clashed during council meetings.

The council appointed a six-member panel of residents to look into hiring an ombudsman. But the council was not satisfied with the panel’s recommendation to set up a community resource center headed by an ombudsman who would provide information to residents and look into their complaints, Councilwoman Rosa Hernandez said.

The committee met again Monday and finalized a proposal that was to have been submitted to the council Friday, according to Victor Vaillette, a member of the ombudsman committee.

Hernandez said the new proposal will include a plan to seek funding for the center from the county instead of the city, which the committee believes would allow the center to operate more independently.

“The role of a community center will be to gather and disseminate information about services available to residents,” Vaillette said, “How will someone in this community find out about an ombudsman if there isn’t an information center? They certainly won’t find out about it by going to City Hall.”

The committee planned to submit a proposal to the county’s Community Development Commission’s Block Grant Division for funding by Friday, which was the deadline for grant proposal applications for fiscal 1993-94.