More Candidates Than Issues in Los Alamitos Race

Four years ago, the City Council election here was canceled because no one ran against the three incumbents. In 1992, there were two challengers, one of whom died two months before the election. The incumbents were returned to office.

But the Nov. 8 election will be different for the 6,000 registered voters in this city of about 12,000 residents. Seven candidates--five of them challengers--are vying for the three open seats on the council.

One likely reason for the crowded field is that the five-member council will have at least one new face. After 12 years on the council, Mayor Anthony R. Selvaggi has decided not to seek reelection.

“It’s encouraging to see more people challenge for the seats,” said Selvaggi, 69, who also served nine years on the Planning Commission. “The more people involved, the healthier is the political arena.”

Local elections here are often friendly contests among well-intentioned neighbors seeking to keep the community the way it is. Residents disdain growth, as shown two years ago when they voted to disband the city’s Redevelopment Agency.

Recent city surveys have indicated general contentment among residents, due to a low crime rate, excellent police and fire services, good schools and plenty of youth and seniors programs.

City operations are run in a frugal manner. This fiscal year’s $6.4-million operating budget includes more than $1.4 million in reserves, and was balanced without imposing new taxes or laying off employees.

“There are no burning issues,” Selvaggi said. “There’s voter satisfaction.”

That seems apparent.

Even a 6% utility tax, imposed in April, 1991, has generated little conflict among the candidates. Only one candidate, Marilyn M. Poe, a tax consultant, wants the tax repealed. The others, aware that the utility tax generates about $1.5 million a year, say that it is necessary.

“I don’t believe it can be eliminated,” said fellow candidate Frank Varnum, a business owner. “It can be reduced though.”

“There is no other alternative,” accountant Kevin McKinney said. “But it has to be spent wisely.”

Another council hopeful, Timothy A. Harris, said the utility tax cannot be eliminated without cutting services, and the two incumbents--Alice Jempsa and Robert P. Wahlstrom--said that police, fire and other basic services cannot be maintained properly without the utility tax.

“It’s the fairest tax in Los Alamitos,” said challenger Victor D’Agostino, an auditor. He said that banks and hospitals, which do not generate sales taxes, provide about $1.2 million of the utility tax revenue.

“It will take a minor miracle to eliminate it,” said Jempsa, who is seeking her third term on the council. “It has become one way of paying our bills.”

Wahlstrom, purchasing director of a restaurant chain, said that the city must increase its sales tax base, retain and attract businesses, and make city government more business friendly. All other candidates agreed.

Poe suggested that a panel of merchants and business people formed a few years ago be reconvened to study ways to improve the business climate.

All candidates label themselves as pro-business, underscoring the quest for new sources of revenue in the face of what they call “raids” on cities’ finances by the state government to balance its own budget.

But the city’s plan to separate from the Los Alamitos County Water District, which provides sewer services to residents here and other communities, has generated mixed reactions from the candidates.

Although all seven candidates say the city should wait until the state and the county finish their studies on special districts, eventually the city has to decide whether to take over sewer services within city limits.

The Los Alamitos County Water District operates sewer lines that have linked households here and in Rossmoor, Seal Beach and Cypress to a county sewer treatment plant for the past 42 years.

Jempsa, Wahlstrom and D’Agostino said that the city should eventually take over. McKinney and Varnum said that the city should leave it alone. Poe said the state or the Local Agency Formation Commission should make the decision.

Harris said that if taking over sewer services helps build the reserves to maintain the sewer lines, he will support it.