Tragedies Hit Close to Home Too Often : Mortuary Operator George Mirabal Sees the Young Claimed by Violence. He Joined the Bell City Council to Make Changes.

In March, the Bell City Council appointed City Clerk George Mirabal to finish the term of Jay Price, the late councilman and mayor. Mirabal served one council term, from 1986-90, as well as a mayoral term, from 1988-89. He is the only Latino on the council despite the fact that 86% of the city’s 34,365 residents are Latino. Mirabal, 43, is vice president of Mirabal Mortuary. He was interviewed by Libby Slate.

One of the main reasons I accepted the council position was having a mortuary in the Southeast area. There was a stretch where we were having one homicide funeral a week. They were all young people--the majority gang members or innocent bystanders. I deal with the families, and there’s a lot of tragedy there. You think, “What can you do to change this?” For me, it was City Council.

We just had a service for a 15-year-old from South Gate. Most people, if they see one homicide in a lifetime, it’s too much. Once they’re involved personally, they’re willing to do something about it. But otherwise, it’s something that happens to somebody else. And with young people, it might happen to someone they know and they feel a loss, but they still feel it won’t happen to them.

The city can allocate money to the police. We can also go to the source, allocate to parks and recreation and social programs, and maybe alleviate problems five years down the line. These are hard decisions to make. But the nuts and bolts are the police.

Two things have changed since the first time I served on the City Council: the city government and the community. The city is a tough nut because of the lack of funding. The federal government has taken away the sharing that went all the way back to Lyndon B. Johnson’s presidency, where federal revenues were shared with cities. We used to get $1 million a year, and now it’s been completely gone for three or four years.

A lot of places we depended on for revenue are gone. We still receive a percentage from the Department of Motor Vehicles, but not as much. The same goes for property taxes. Last year we thought we took a big hit, but this year it’s even more. The 1989-90 budget was $7 million; the budget for ‘92-93 is $6 million. We had 130 city employees then and now we’re down to 92; the Police Department now makes up about half of the budget.

Now you see cities going after utility taxes as the only way to generate more revenue to pay for things people expect: police, street maintenance, parks and recreation, and a certain amount of social programs. We expected a real outcry against the utility tax, a three-year tax that began last September, but folks were supportive. They were willing to be taxed as long as they knew where the money was going.

We’re being very conservative in the ways the money is spent. We’ve laid off a lot of city employees, except for the Police Department. It’s been hit, but more in terms of the support group around the police, not the patrolmen.

As for the community, it has become even more Hispanic. You see more large families moving into the area, and there are more Hispanics at public hearings. I’m going to run for City Council next April when this term is up.

I think the most important attribute of a councilman is to communicate, providing and accepting information. Being appointed because 86% of the community is Hispanic is not so much a philosophical thing, but a practical thing. The people who live here feel comfortable speaking in Spanish. We ask, “How can we make them participate in government?” If it’s easier for them to do so by doing it in Spanish, then do it. At the City Hall counters some people speak Spanish. Some of our department heads are Spanish-speaking. The city provides classes for people in city government who want to learn Spanish.

I’m not discounting English. I’m very proud of my English heritage. I was born in Los Angeles, grew up there and in Whittier. I moved to Bell because I saw a business opportunity here.

Serving on the City Council is a personal commitment. I’ve been involved with service clubs for the same reason, that whole philosophy of giving back to the community where you have your business. I believe you should live in the city where your business is; you can’t make decisions if you’re outside.

You can’t solve problems overnight. It takes education. You need vision, commitment and perseverance. There’s no magic wand, but if you can make a little bit of change each day, at the end you can look back and see you’ve made a difference.

“You can’t solve problems overnight. It takes education. You need vision, commitment and perseverance. There’s no magic wand, but if you can make a little bit of change each day, at the end you can look back and see you’ve made a difference.”