Inglewood Election Comes at Key Time

Times are tough for Inglewood. The police chief quit almost a month ago. The city manager is leaving. The school superintendent is under attack. The Kings and Lakers may be vacating the Forum in three years. The city hasn’t had a full-time mayor for nearly four months. And the remaining four council members have a hard time agreeing on just about anything without hurling insults at one another.

But the city’s April 1 election may change some of that.

Four candidates are vying for the vacant mayor’s position, including a well-known judge who has financial backing from many of the city’s largest businesses. In addition, 14 candidates are competing for two seats on the five-member City Council. If no candidates receive at least 50% of the vote, a runoff election will be held June 3.

Ever since former Mayor Ed Vincent was elected to the Assembly in November and moved into his Sacramento post, the city of 110,000 has been in a state of flux.

Vincent, a county probation officer who in 1983 became the city’s first African American mayor, is an aggressive politician and fierce promoter of Inglewood who was able to weather the fractious infighting that has been a hallmark of Inglewood city politics.

A new mayor would have to be just as strong and tough to help revitalize a city struggling to shed its image as a high-crime community that is slowly crumbling. This year’s candidates all talk about cracking down on gangs, rebuilding the city’s withering downtown and attracting new businesses to a community that in the 1960s and early 1970s was the commercial hub of the South Bay.

Running for mayor are Juvenile Court Judge Roosevelt F. Dorn, 61; Los Angeles Police Officer Carl McGill, 38; City Councilman Curren D. Price Jr., 46; and community activist Michael Stevens, 38.

Dorn, by far, has raised the most campaign money. By mid-February, Dorn had received more than $95,000 in contributions. He received $15,000 from Hollywood Park, $10,000 from the Forum, $10,000 from Centinela Hospital Medical Center and $26,000 worth of office space for campaign headquarters from businessman Lee Sudman.

Price, who has been a councilman for four years, is second in fund-raising with more than $22,000, most of it from individuals and small businesses.

Dorn, appointed in 1980 to the Superior Court by then-Gov. Edmund G. “Jerry” Brown Jr., said he was approached last summer by a group of Inglewood businessmen and ministers who asked him to run for mayor.

“I initially told them they had to be out of their minds,” said Dorn, an Inglewood resident since the 1960s. After mulling it over for two weeks, Dorn decided to enter the mayoral race because he felt someone needed to help the city turn things around.

“I’ve watched this city deteriorate from being the jewel of the South Bay to the point where it is the laughingstock of the South Bay,” Dorn said.

After announcing his candidacy Dec. 9, Dorn temporarily stepped down from his Juvenile Court job in Inglewood, receiving no pay while he runs his campaign.

Dorn, who is endorsed by former Mayor Vincent as well as the Inglewood Police Assn. and the Inglewood Firefighters Assn., said he will take a tough and stern attitude in dealing with gangs and crime in Inglewood.

Control crime, he maintains, and businesses will return to Inglewood. “Inglewood sits in the middle of four freeways. It is perfectly located. It sits right next to the airport and not far from the harbor. Therefore, control crime and entrepreneurs, businessmen, businesswomen and developers will tear this city up trying to invest.”

Dorn said that if he is elected he will name a new police chief shortly thereafter and sign a contract with the Police Department’s 162 rank-and-file officers who have not had a raise in two years.

To control crime, he wants the law enforced to the letter. He also wants to turn the city’s two high schools into magnet schools.

Another get-tough-on-crime candidate is Carl McGill, an 11-year Los Angeles police officer now on disability. McGill supports an injunction obtained recently by the district attorney’s office to curb gang activity in the Darby-Dixon neighborhood of Inglewood.

Over the years, he has donated hours of his off-duty time to give anti-gang talks to high school students and parents.

In addition, McGill co-founded the small African American Peace Officers Assn., which demanded the resignation of former Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl Gates after the Rodney King beating.

Operating on a minuscule $1,500 campaign budget, McGill decided to run for mayor after Centinela Park, the city’s largest park, was renamed for outgoing Mayor Vincent. In February, McGill filed a lawsuit to change the name.

The police officer also opposes the City Council giving itself a nearly 500% pay raise that goes into effect after the election. Council members will be making $47,244 a year and the mayor will be making $94,500 a year.

“Why should a part-time official be paid $40,000 a year?” he asked. “If it’s such a hard job, let someone else do it.”

McGill supports developing downtown Market Street by turning it into a pedestrian promenade and making it a tax-free zone for five years. He also supports declaring Inglewood an enterprise zone.

Curren D. Price, who opted to run for mayor instead of seeking a second council term representing District 1, also would like to see the downtown area turned into a pedestrian promenade but would like to see ethnically diverse and artistically creative businesses step in.

Price, who owns a print shop with his wife, Lynn, believes the city can attract businesses by simplifying the rules for establishing new enterprises. He advocates creating a small business ombudsman within the city to identify start-up problems and cut red tape.

Price supports raises for the City Council if members take more responsibility for running city government. He prefers that a city administrator, who would work at the council’s behest, run Inglewood rather than a city manager. Price was one of the council members who called for City Manager Paul Eckles’ resignation, saying the city official, who earned more than $200,000 a year, was overpaid.

As mayor, Price said he would conduct an audit of every city department to trim Inglewood’s $158-million budget.

Michael Stevens, a frequent City Council critic who is a local media consultant and property manager, said he would eliminate all property assessments within five years and lower utility taxes to 5% from their current 10%. He also opposes oil drilling in Inglewood Park Cemetery and hotel or business taxes.

“My platform is we have to have accountability in the city of Inglewood,” he said.

DISTRICT 1

Nine candidates are vying for the 1st District council seat that Price, who is running for mayor, has held for four years. This is one of the city’s most affluent districts and is home to Hollywood Park and the Forum. It has never been represented by a woman, but there are five female candidates.

One of the main concerns of residents in this area is the soundproofing of homes that sit directly under the flight path of Los Angeles International Airport. Job growth and safety are other issues.

The candidates are Jerrilynne Bossett, 36, a library analyst; George Dotson, 55, owner of a local carpet and drape company; Gloria D. Gray, 50, a health care administrator and Inglewood Unified school board president; Edward H. Grice III, 44, an aide to Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald; Lois Hill Hale, 58, a former Inglewood school board member; Christopher Hargrow, 26, a community organizer; Jerome Horton, 40, an audit manager; Loystene Irvin, a Pentecostal minister and Inglewood school board member; and Cynthia LeGardye, 37, a lawyer and former Los Angeles police officer.

DISTRICT 2

Incumbent Judy Dunlap, who is finishing her first term on the City Council, faces a challenge by Tony Scardenzan, whom she beat in 1993 by 40 votes.

Scardenzan, 69, who owns a Gardena tool-and-die business and was on the council for 12 years, contends that Dunlap has not effectively served this north Inglewood district. He says that some council members try to sabotage the issues she brings before the council.

Indeed, Dunlap is under constant attack. Last June, after she made accusations of racism against City Manager Eckles for the way the city’s affirmative-action policy is handled, the council banned Dunlap from talking to city staff outside official meetings.

Dunlap, 51, a retired elementary school teacher, said she is one of the few council members who questions how the city is run.

Another candidate is Cal E. Burton, a businessman and former television newscaster who moved to Inglewood last year. In 1995, Burton ran for a seat on the Los Angeles City Council, losing to Mark Ridley-Thomas.

Other challengers include Keri Leftridge, 57, a benefits coordinator, who said the district is not getting the services it needs, such as street repair and tree trimming; and Velma Stevens, 50, a parole officer, who would concentrate on lowering crime so that children and senior citizens could safely walk through the city.