Voters Decide School Bond Measures, Council Seats

Voters went to the polls in nearly 100 local elections across Los Angeles County on Tuesday, deciding eight school bond measures and several municipal tax issues as well as city council, school board and special district seats.

Early returns boosted the hopes of backers of school bond measures in El Segundo and Pasadena, giving them margins above the two-thirds approval needed for passage. Bond measures in the Mt. San Antonio Community College District, Lawndale School District and Bassett Unified School District were trailing.

Early returns also tended to favor incumbent candidates in many races. Despite his decision last month to quit the Bonita school board race in San Dimas and La Verne, incumbent Robert Olander II led the field of five candidates after the mail-in ballots were counted. Olander’s withdrawal came too late to remove his name from the ballot.

However, in Lomita--the only jurisdiction to count its own ballots rather than have county officials do it--an incumbent lost. Councilman Lawson Pedigo was defeated in his bid for a second term while colleague Ben Traina handily won reelection. Timothy King, one of four challengers, will replace Pedigo. Revitalization of the city’s business district was a key issue in the contest.

Tuesday’s balloting in Los Angeles County took place in 17 cities and 59 school districts, as well as in eight community college districts, seven water districts, two irrigation districts and one library district.

Tax and fiscal issues were the dominant theme in many of the election races, particularly in the eight school or community college districts in which voters were asked to approve bond measures totaling $625 million.

All the bond measures required two-thirds approval for passage. The revenues from the bonds--to be paid back over 25 to 30 years--were earmarked for renovating or expanding aging school facilities or for building new ones. The money could not be spent on salaries, administrative costs or educational programs.

Two of the districts--El Segundo and Torrance--placed measures on Tuesday’s ballot after similar measures were turned down by voters in June. Torrance switched its $80.5-million bid to a more commonly used, less controversial form of bonds, known as general obligation, after falling short with a so-called Mello Roos measure, which would have taxed businesses and residences at different rates. The June vote drew 58% “yes” votes, a solid majority but well short of the two-thirds required.

El Segundo lost its $24-million measure in June by a mere 31 votes, and bond supporters were hoping that a pending shift in school district boundaries would put the measure over the top this time.

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In June, the measure drew strong opposition in El Porto, a formerly unincorporated community that was annexed by Manhattan Beach several years ago but remained in the El Segundo school district. Many El Porto residents send their children to Manhattan Beach, and the county and the two districts are preparing to switch the neighborhood from one district to the other. That means El Porto property owners would not pay for the El Segundo bonds, a fact that bond backers were hoping would calm opposition from that neighborhood.

Several local cities had tax measures on their ballots, most of which required voters’ permission because of Proposition 218, the state initiative approved last fall.

Agoura Hills asked voters to authorize a utility users tax on businesses and a citywide special parcel tax to pay for library facilities. Azusa had five tax measures on its ballot, most of which were aimed at industrial or commercial interests.

San Dimas voters were asked to approve a special parcel tax for specific “public area” improvements.

For Lynwood voters, the question was whether to approve a tax reduction and rate stabilization plan.

In Hawthorne, twin measures to continue two levies, a utility users tax and a business license tax, provided heated debate, in contrast to the relatively quiet races for mayor and two council seats.

City officials said dropping the taxes, which together bring in $5.5 million, would force drastic cuts in police and other municipal services. Opponents said they were bluffing. Toward the end of the campaign, an apartment building owner who was a leading opponent of the tax measures sued their backers, charging that they had libeled him in campaign mailers.

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Voters in Lynwood and Montebello were asked to decide whether to merge their hometown fire departments with the massive Los Angeles County Fire Department. Several other cities have disbanded their departments to join the county or are considering such a move, mainly in hopes of saving money.

Fiscal concerns played out in elections in several other communities, even without a specific measure on the local ballot.

Long-running disputes over construction and management problems in the Palos Verdes Library District framed the four-way race for two seats on the board. The incumbents decided not to seek reelection to the board, which oversees three libraries on the well-heeled Palos Verdes Peninsula.

School bond measures, which are cropping up with increasing regularity on local ballots as districts seek ways to refurbish or replace aging campuses, sparked lively campaigns in several communities. They were most hotly contested in Pasadena Unified, which includes Sierra Madre and Altadena as well as Pasadena, and in Torrance.

Pasadena’s $240-million measure--by far the largest in Tuesday’s balloting--drew formal opposition from the Libertarian Party and a dogged crusade from an anti-bonds parent who set up a Web page from which to lob criticism of district spending habits. But the measure enjoyed broad support from civic leaders, and the campaign was guided by a campaign consultant with an enviable track record: Oakland-based Larry Tramutola had succeeded in winning approval for 51 of the 55 measures he oversaw during the last three years.

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Tramutola also was hired by backers of a $93.1-million bond measure for the Las Virgenes Unified School District. That measure drew no organized opposition, but supporters expressed some concerns that tax measures on the ballot in one of the district’s communities, Agoura Hills, might cause voters to balk at the bonds.

In Torrance, backers of Measure K pulled out all the stops to try to overcome opposition from a group that derailed their bonds effort in June. Proponents organized parents, spread lawn signs around town and published detailed lists on how the money would be spent at each campus.

Opponents did not deny the need to fix up campuses but argued that the money to do so could be found through more careful use of the funds the district already has at its disposal.

All the districts seeking approval for bond measures cited the need to modernize schools at least 30 years old and to expand facilities to accommodate growing student populations and to make room for smaller classes.

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Times correspondents Deborah Belgum, Tracy Johnson, Sue McAllister and Richard Winton contributed to this story.

* ELECTION RETURNS: B3