STANTON : New Councilmen Plan to Target 6% Utility Tax

Two challengers elected to the City Council said they will try to usher in a reform attitude that consists of cleaning up the city and repealing a controversial utility tax that has raised the ire of hard-working residents.

Brian Donahue, 56, a former council member, and David John Shawver, 47, a director of the Regional Occupational Program in Whittier, were the top two vote-getters in Tuesday’s election, which saw the ousting of incumbents Don Martinez and Linda J. Pappas Diaz.

Donahue said he hoped there weren’t going to be too many split votes when the new council takes its first vote together.

“I just hope we can be a united front,” said Donahue, who received 2,260 votes, second behind Shawver’s 2,745 total. “In order to survive and progress, the city is going to have to make unanimous decisions,” Donahue said.

Shawver, a wrestling coach at a Long Beach high school, received 24% of the vote while Donahue received 20%. Incumbent Harry Dotson, 68, a retired energy conservation officer, won a second term, garnering 19%, or 2,174 votes.

Martinez, a one-term incumbent, and Pappas Diaz, who was appointed to replace Joe Harris in October, 1993, received the fewest votes in the election.

Dotson said he and the rest of the council, which includes Mayor Sal Sapien and councilman William C. Estrada, were going to try their best to work with the newcomers. However, he said repealing the 6% utility tax levied a year ago is an issue that will have to be looked at seriously before any action is taken.

He said a portion of the $1.4 million that was raised from the tax has strengthened law enforcement by paying to put extra deputies on the streets.