All 5 Council Members Pass Residency Check : Investigation: George T. Deitch refuses to sign sworn statement, but detective says ‘everything else checked out.’ Deitch has acknowledged his family lives in Downey.

A private investigator hired by the city to determine where the five Bell Gardens City Council members live has found that they all appear to reside in the city.

The council ordered the investigation in last month after questions were raised about the residency of Councilmen George T. Deitch and Rodolfo (Rudy) Garcia. A council watchdog contended that Deitch lives in Downey, and Councilwoman Josefina (Josie) Macias said she had concerns about where Garcia lives.

Both councilmen insist that they live in Bell Gardens, as required by law.

Investigator Ken Arnold said he checked voter registration records and interviewed neighbors of each council member. He also obtained sworn statements from four council members, asserting that they live in the city.

Deitch, however, refused to sign a sworn statement. Although he joined the other council members in voting to hire the investigator, Deitch said he did not agree with the investigation and wanted nothing to do with it. Deitch said the council was “wasting $350 of the city’s money (the cost of the investigation). They are just trying to embarrass me. It’s all political.”

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Deitch said he suggested that the investigator “park (his) butt in front of my house for 30 days, sit there and watch me. That’s an investigation.”

Arnold said he was satisfied that Deitch lives in Bell Gardens after checking the councilman’s voter registration record and interviewing Deitch’s daughter, Kathy, who lives in a duplex next to the Florence Avenue apartment complex that Deitch lists as his residence.

The investigator said Deitch’s daughter told him that her father lived at the complex. Arnold said he was unable to contact other neighbors.

He said he was not concerned about Deitch’s refusal to sign a statement. “Everything else checked out, so I didn’t get suspicious,” said Arnold, who is with Telesis Investigative Agency of Los Alamitos.

Arnold submitted his report to City Manager Charles Gomez, who could not be reached for comment.

The investigation was approved in October after council watchdog Victor Vaillette said at a council meeting that on numerous occasions he has followed Deitch to a house in Downey. Deitch said his wife, Vivian, and two school-age children live in the Downey house.

Vaillette accused Deitch of pretending to live in an apartment complex he owns on Florence Avenue in Bell Gardens.

Vaillette said Deitch’s refusal to sign the investigator’s statement is further proof that the councilman does not live in Bell Gardens. “If he really lived here, why wouldn’t he just sign the paper?” Vaillette asked.

Deitch has acknowledged that his family lives in Downey. He insisted in an interview, however, that he continues to live in Bell Gardens and visits his wife and two children “as often as I feel like it.”

Although state law requires council members to maintain a “legal domicile” in the city where they serve, it does not prohibit them from sleeping elsewhere even seven nights a week, City Atty. Michael Estrada said.

Deitch said he moved his family to the Downey residence several months ago because he is trying to sell that house. “Empty houses don’t sell,” said Deitch, a real estate broker. “You have to have furniture and flowers to add some warmth to a place before it will sell.”

The investigator also concluded that Councilman Garcia lives in a tiny apartment on Jaboneria Road in Bell Gardens. Garcia moved to the city from Bell shortly before filing for candidacy in 1991.