Recall Election Is Spinoff of Casino Battle

Police call on voters for protection. A woman is charged with pummeling a heckler during a political rally. A judge says city councilmen conspired to dodge their duties.

It’s politics as usual in Hawaiian Gardens.

More than a year has passed since the city divided over a referendum on building a poker club. But judging by events leading up to this week’s recall election for four members of the City Council, the battle over Measure A isn’t over.

Although it was approved by 57% of city voters, the card club measure has yet to produce a gaming establishment, as lawsuits have held up construction. What it has produced is a lot of political unhappiness and four bitter recall campaigns that could tip the council’s balance of power.

The City Council’s working majority, Mayor Lupe Cabrera and Councilmen Robert Canada and Robert Prida, are trying to oust their political nemesis and card club opponent, Councilwoman Kathleen Navejas. She and her supporters have countered by adding the self-proclaimed “three amigos” to Tuesday’s recall ballot.

Navejas says all she wants to do is renegotiate Measure A’s finer details--without her opponents’ interference. But to the mayor and his allies, she represents the last barrier to the casino revenues that voters expect. The city is nearly broke, and they say the $2.5-million-a-year police force could be lost unless gambling revenues arrive soon.

“All [her lawsuit] is doing is delaying the city of Hawaiian Gardens from being what it could be,” Canada said.

Only Councilman Rene Flores’ job is secure through Wednesday, and a March recall election was just scheduled for him--after he was targeted for being an ally of Navejas.

Like last year’s referendum, gambling interests are footing most of the campaign expenses for Tuesday’s election.

On Navejas’ side are the state’s biggest card clubs. Her Help Eliminate Rip-Offs committee has received more than $200,000 this year from a political group funded by casinos in Bell Gardens, Commerce and Inglewood. Much of that money, however, goes toward her legal battle to block the Hawaiian Gardens casino.

Opposite them is the card club developer, Dr. Irving Moskowitz, a local philanthropist who also operates the city’s bingo parlor. He personally bankrolls part of the city’s general fund from his home in Florida and is now the largest contributor to the council majority’s campaigns.

Part of the reason for the fuss is that Hawaiian Gardens, a square-mile community of mostly working-class Latinos, is an ideal spot for a casino. It is off the San Gabriel River Freeway on the border of Los Angeles and Orange counties, a short drive from some of Southern California’s core gambling communities.

The city’s police union has thrown its weight behind Navejas. Officers say they cannot trust the council majority since it made their chief accountable to the city administrator. The union also says the majority’s budget policies endanger the very existence of the department, which it says could be dissolved in favor of less expensive sheriff’s services--so it is asking voters to throw out the majority.

No sooner had police mailed their first campaign flier, than a city workers union responded by endorsing the mayor and his allies.

Just as Measure A is being hashed out in court, so was the scheduling of Tuesday’s election.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Diane Wayne postponed a September recall vote against Navejas after finding that Cabrera, Canada and Prida violated state public meeting laws when they planned the election. Wayne then added the three to Tuesday’s ballot, ruling that they, together with the city clerk, intentionally delayed accepting their own recall petitions.

Even if all four council members are recalled, they may have the chance to live on vicariously through the candidates they have hand-picked to replace their opponents.

And there’s always March. Cabrera’s, Canada’s and Prida’s seats are up for election then, and they could run again if they lose Tuesday. Navejas, on the other hand, has filed for the position of city clerk, but would actively campaign for it only if she is ousted from the council in Tuesday’s vote.

Community activists have found other ways to join the dispute. During a pro-Navejas demonstration in front of the police station Sunday, one of her critics drove up in a car and started shouting at the group. One of the councilwoman’s supporters took offense, went up to his window and began striking him. She was cited for misdemeanor battery, he for disturbing the peace.

Former Mayor H. M. Lennie Wagner, a retired teacher and owner of an animal care facility in town, prefers to watch the city’s political dramas from the sidelines, tossing in her two cents only once in a while. But it seems to her there’s a lot riding on Measure A.

Sure, there are problems with the casino plan, she said, but if Hawaiian Gardens wants to survive, it can’t afford not to have a card club.

“We just want the money,” she said.