Navejas Is Reelected to Council : Hawaiian Gardens: Rene Flores, her running mate, holds slim lead with some absentees uncounted. Ballot tampering is alleged.

Hawaiian Gardens Mayor Kathleen M. Navejas on Tuesday handily won reelection to a third term and running mate Rene Flores held a slim lead for one other City Council seat in a raucous election marred by last-minute accusations of ballot tampering.

Navejas and her supporters, waiting for election results at City Hall, cheered and hugged one another as the unofficial tallies were posted in the council chambers. Flores, an aerospace machinist and city planning commissioner, was leading candidate Placido Alvarez by 17 votes, with another 46 provisional and absentee ballots yet to be verified by the county registrar.

Incumbent Domenic Ruggeri lost his reelection bid, placing fourth among five candidates vying for the two council seats.

“It looks like we did it,” said a jubilant Navejas. “This was a tough one because of all the bickering and accusations. But we’re a tough team.”

Voters also approved a measure changing the city clerk from an appointed position to an elected post and decided that the officeholder will serve two-year terms. Advocates of the measure said they wanted the clerk to be accountable to voters.

In the council race, Flores was predicting victory, saying the yet-to-be-counted ballots were cast primarily by voters he and Navejas had wooed during the campaign. “I always figured from the beginning it would be me and Kathy,” Flores said.

A Flores victory would strengthen Navejas’ voting bloc on the five-member City Council, observers say. Councilmen Robert J. Prida and Robert G. Canada vote with Navejas on virtually every issue. Ruggeri and Councilman Lupe Cabrera have voted against the majority on several issues.

Absentees votes played a key role in this election, accounting for one-third of the total votes cast. Navejas captured 283 absentee votes and Flores garnered 250. No other candidate received more than 60.

But Navejas’ opponents said the mayor and her supporters had illegally collected absentee ballots from voters. Alvarez, Ruggeri and candidate Alan Calcote said they planned to contest the election and called for an investigation by the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.

“We got cheated,” Alvarez said. “It’s disgusting the way it comes out in the end.”

Navejas adamantly denied that she or any of her campaign workers touched absentee ballots, which can only be delivered by voters themselves or their relatives.

But Navejas acknowledged that her campaign had turned in about 40 so-called emergency-absentee ballots in the days before the election for voters unable to make it to the polls. Voters who are incapacitated or struck by sudden illness immediately before an election can designate someone to pick up their ballot and return it to City Hall.

“It’s perfectly legitimate, perfectly legal,” Navejas said of the practice.

Absentee ballots have played a dominant role in recent city elections. In 1992, absentees propelled Navejas ally Prida to victory after he initially trailed as results on Election Day were tallied.

This week’s election night furor over absentees was only the latest controversy to erupt during a bitter campaign dominated by personal attacks and accusations of wrongdoing.

During the campaign, Alvarez said he received death threats at the traffic school where he works and Prida threatened to punch Calcote after he complained that the city newsletter is a campaign organ for the mayor.

For her part, Navejas accused her opponents of trying to discredit her by selling drugs to her son and planting drugs in a city car driven by City Administrator Nelson Oliva, who was arrested in January in San Bernardino County on suspicion of drunk driving and cocaine possession. The case is still under investigation and no charges have been filed.

In the campaign’s final days, Navejas and Ruggeri mailed hit pieces targeting one another. In one mailer, Navejas accused Ruggeri of voting against projects that would help senior citizens, create jobs and provide affordable housing. In his piece, Ruggeri reprinted selected parts of a recent Times story quoting Navejas detractors saying she was a dictator who readily rewarded friends and allies.

One of the issues that received attention during the campaign was the city’s new Police Department. Navejas called it a necessary addition for a community in need of more law enforcement, but Ruggeri and other Navejas foes said it was too costly.

The Police Department issue appeared to strike a chord with voters who want to see their streets free of crime.

“I voted for Navejas and Flores because the mayor was instrumental in creating the Police Department,” said eight-year resident Michael Riddick as he emerged from a voting booth.

Ruggeri said the new Police Department will drain the city’s already depleted budget and warned that tougher financial times lie ahead.

“Maybe I should be glad I’m not going to be part of it any longer,” he said after conceding defeat.

Ruggeri’s departure leaves Cabrera, a longtime Navejas foe, as the mayor’s sole opponent on the council. “It looks like I’m going to be the Lone Ranger,” Cabrera said. “I’ll probably get bashed more often than I do now, but I’m used to that.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

ELECTION RETURNS HAWAIIAN GARDENS City Council Two seats 7 of 7 Precincts Reporting

Candidate Vote % Placido Alvarez 435 22 Alan Calcote 186 9 Rene R. Flores 452 23 Kathleen M. Navejas* 550 27 Domenic Ruggeri* 385 19

* Denotes incumbents Measure A Make city clerk elected position 7 of 7 Precincts Reporting

Candidate Vote % Yes 577 63 No 340 37

Two-year city clerk term

Candidate Vote % Yes 480 62 No 290 38

Four-year term

Candidate Vote % Yes 296 45 No 358 55