City Without Police, Budget Gets New Mayor
The city staff has dwindled from 105 to 27. The Police Department has been dissolved. And the city doesn’t have a formally adopted budget this year because its financial future has been so precarious.
But that doesn’t bother Ralph Cesena, who was elected the new mayor of Hawaiian Gardens at this week’s City Council meeting. He is confident that this square-mile city, which almost closed its City Hall doors last year to be taken over by the county, can make it after the budget slashing.
“Things have been rough, and they will continue to be rough for a while,” said Cesena, who was elected to the council in late 1996. “But we plan to pay the people we owe.”
The recently opened Hawaiian Gardens Casino, with six tables, has handed over $6,800 to the city during its first two months of operation.
Irving Moskowitz, owner of the casino and a local bingo parlor, has resumed his $200,000 monthly contributions to the Hawaiian Gardens Public Safety and Police Foundation, which helps the city meet its general operating expenses.
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