Official Quits Over Alleged Conflict

Vernon city officials insist that they never intended to deprive Bell Gardens of its city manager. Their only concern, they say, was the price of water.

When they pressured Charles Trevino to choose between his jobs at Bell Gardens City Hall and his other job as a director of the Central Basin Water District, Vernon officials say they expected him to choose the former.

But their plan apparently backfired. And now Bell Gardens finds itself in the familiar position of searching for a new city manager--its fifth in four years.

Vernon said that holding both jobs constituted a conflict of interest.

In his letter of resignation, Trevino called Vernon’s allegation an “insidious attempt . . . to control the water district.”

Trevino and various Bell Gardens officials did not return several phone calls over the past week seeking comment. But in the letter, Trevino also said that Bell Gardens knew of the potential for such charges and hired him anyway last July with a promise to redefine the position. Further, he wrote, Bell Gardens officials have refused to help him fight Vernon’s accusation.

Vernon City Atty. David Brearley, who helped file the conflict-of-interest claim with the state attorney general last year, said the incompatibility of Trevino’s jobs was “pretty clear,” because Bell Gardens is one of several cities that does business with the district.

But Vernon’s reason for filing the accusation, Brearley said, was not to attack Bell Gardens, but to unseat Trevino as director of the district, an elected position he has held since January 1995. Vernon targeted Trevino, Brearley said, because he supported a plan that would force the city to pay for reclaimed water at a cost higher than its regular water rate. “We would have been very happy if [Trevino] would have stayed on at Bell Gardens and resigned at Central Basin,” Brearley said.

Trevino’s letter did not mention why he chose the water district job, which pays less than $20,000 a year, over the city manager position, which paid $109,000 a year. Some have speculated, however, that political ambition may have played a role, or that he is planning to return from temporary leave to his former job as an analyst at the Los Angeles Housing Department.

Although Vernon dropped its claim after Trevino’s resignation last month, Bell Gardens still has no city manager. Also, since the position of assistant city manager was dropped last year during budget cuts, department heads at City Hall are having to work around the vacancy.

So its back to published advertisements and interviews for Bell Gardens. But that’s nothing new: the city fired its previous three city managers within the same number of years over various political and financial conflicts.