Bell Gardens Council Beset by New Feud

Just when it seemed the mess that is politics in Bell Gardens could get no messier, an ugly new scandal has engulfed this blue-collar community.

At the heart of the latest brouhaha is the ongoing feud between the City Council majority led by Mayor David Torres and its archrivals, council members Maria Chacon and Ramiro Morales.

Chacon, Morales and their supporters recently scored an important victory when they submitted enough signatures for a recall election aimed at ousting Torres and his two allies on the council.

Torres and his council allies fired back with a lawsuit accusing Chacon and Morales of using lies and slander in the campaign to collect recall signatures.

But now the feud has taken a stunning twist: Torres and the council majority have replaced Bell Gardens’ longtime city attorney with Shan Thever--the lawyer who represented the council majority in its lawsuit against Chacon, Morales and the other recall proponents.

Thever said he removed himself from the lawsuit before he was hired as city attorney, but legal experts say he can’t hold the city job without violating the state bar’s conflict-of-interest rules.

“The city attorney has to be free of any divided loyalty to his former clients,” said Diane Karpman, an ethics attorney and former referee with the state bar court that evaluates such issues.

Southwestern University law professor Robert Pugsley called the situation “unseemly” and suggested the state bar investigate.

Thever contends that he has no conflict because his law firm played a minor role in the lawsuit.

Political intrigue and scandal have been commonplace in Bell Gardens since a Latino political movement took over in City Hall in 1991 but soon splintered into warring factions.

The firing of the city attorney during the council’s Jan. 8 meeting has infuriated many Bell Gardens residents, who have urged the council to put an end to the bickering.

At that meeting, Rogelio Rodriguez, a longtime resident, complained that the city has become a laughingstock.

“Please open your eyes and start thinking about the people who elected you to office,” he urged the council.

The Jan. 8 meeting was a typically raucous affair, with audience and council members shouting, interrupting each other and trading insults.

Torres and his allies, Councilmen Joaquin Penilla and Salvador Rios, voted to fire City Atty. Arnoldo Beltran and City Clerk Ronald Hart without stating a reason.

Chacon and Morales fought vehemently to keep the two longtime officials but lost on a 3-2 vote.

Chacon contended that the council majority made the staff changes to fight or delay the recall. A vote to set an election date is scheduled for tonight’s council meeting.

“It’s clear that they want to control the election,” Chacon said. “They want puppets who they can control.”

Torres angrily rejected Chacon’s charges, calling her a “fabricator of lies.” When pressed in an interview, Torres could give no reason for firing Beltran and Hart.

“If the City Council members decide to get another city attorney or a city clerk, they don’t need a reason,” he said.

Torres conceded that the council hired Thever without discussing a salary or a contract term. But he angrily rejected charges that Thever has a conflict of interest.

Hart and Beltran could not be reached for comment after they were fired. But before the council voted on the dismissals, Beltran echoed Chacon’s concern that the council was trying to hire a city attorney who would be willing to subvert the recall election.

Chacon said she suspects the council majority wants to see the recall petitions to retaliate against citizens who signed them.

By law, only election officials can view recall petition signatures after the signatures have been verified.

Torres said he has no intention of trying to see the petitions and Thever said he would not participate in any effort to subvert the recall campaign.

The council majority named Deputy City Clerk Marta Solano as interim city clerk. She said the petitions are under her control in a secure location away from City Hall.

The recall petitions accuse Rios of using city funds to pay for his 1997 honeymoon in San Diego. City officials have said Rios has since returned the money to the city.

The petition also accuses the council majority of wasting taxpayer money on out-of-town trips. And it criticizes the majority members for voting to increase their salaries from about $10,000 to nearly $32,000 a year, a move detailed in a Times story last year.

The lawsuit against Chacon, Morales and the recall proponents is pending before Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Thomas I. McKnew.

It charges that the petitions are rife with lies and slander and asks McKnew to halt the recall campaign and force the defendants to pay no less than $1 million in damages.

The suit contends that Torres, Penilla and Rios enjoyed reputations of “honesty, good judgment and competence” until the recall effort was launched.

Torres, Penilla and Rios were allowed space on the petition to rebut the charges. In their response, the council majority accused Chacon and Morales of trying to remove the majority to gain control of the council.

“This recall is an attempt to control our city government to benefit Ramiro Morales [and] Maria Chacon,” the majority said in the petition.