Appointment Roils Politics in Bell Gardens Once Again

Political brawling returned to Bell Gardens this week after the City Council gave the city manager’s job to one of its own, a woman with no college degree and no government administrative experience.

In voting to appoint Maria Chacon as city manager, the council chose a member who has led successful recall efforts against political enemies in the working-class city, which is known for nasty partisan feuds.

The appointment boosts her annual salary from $31,400 to about $80,000. The council also voted to appoint former Councilman Rudy Garcia, a Chacon ally, to fill her council post.

To select Chacon, the council voted in October to eliminate the job qualifications required by city law. The council also removed a rule that required elected officials to wait one year after leaving office before taking a city job.

Critics decried the appointment, calling it blatant cronyism and another example of the bare-knuckled politics practiced in the city of 44,000 in southeast Los Angeles County.

“What you are doing to the community is a shame,” former City Atty. Alan Gross told the council Thursday night before the panel made the appointment.

Gross and other critics say Chacon engineered her appointment to sidestep a recall effort underway against her. Chacon denies that allegation.

Chacon did not vote on her own appointment. Councilwoman Teresa Cabrera was the sole vote against the appointment.

Chacon, who has been on the council since 1994 and was an important political figure for several years before that, concedes that she does not have a college degree and has never headed a government agency. She studied business administration for two years at Cerritos College, a community college in Norwalk. She worked for years with her husband managing apartment buildings in Bell Gardens.

But she insisted that she is qualified for the job because of her in-depth knowledge of the city’s government and its residents.

“I bring experience and that is extremely important,” she said in an interview Friday. “What good is it if people have credentials hanging on the wall but don’t have any passion for helping the people?”

Bell Gardens, located between the Golden State and Long Beach freeways, is 88% Latino and has a median household income of about $26,100, making it the fourth-poorest community in the county, according to 1998 income projections by Claritas Inc., a Virginia-based marketing data firm. The median household income in Los Angeles County is $40,300.

Without much industry or sales tax money, Bell Gardens has struggled to provide basic services such as street repair and recreational facilities. The city budget relies heavily on revenues from the Bicycle Club Casino.

Since last year, the city manager’s position has been temporarily held by city Finance Director Anil Gandhy, a certified public accountant with a master’s degree in business administration from Keller Graduate School of Management in Chicago.

Chacon was instrumental in the firing of the city’s previous city manager, Nabar Martinez, who earned an annual salary of about $150,000.

Chacon said she will accept an annual salary of $80,000 because she does not have the experience or background of previous managers.

Chacon jumped into city politics in 1990 when she led a revolt to recall members of the all-white council and helped elect the council’s first Latino majority.

Since then, politics in Bell Gardens has been a series of recall elections, angry shouting matches at council meetings and round after round of dismissals of high-ranking officials.

After she became a U.S. citizen, Chacon won a seat on the council in 1994. A year later, she survived a recall drive led by one of her former council allies.

In 1997, Chacon helped elect three new council members. But two years later, after breaking ranks with the three men, she led a recall campaign to oust them.

Joaquin Penilla, one of the councilmen she helped elect in 1997 and recall two years later, is now part of a citizens committee trying to recall Chacon.

Penilla said Chacon does not have the qualifications to be city manager. He accuses her of being power-hungry and obsessed with control.

“At this point we need very badly somebody who knows how to handle a city of this size,” he said.

Chacon shrugs off Penilla’s charges, calling them sour grapes.

She added: “He is an ex-councilman. What do you expect him to say?”