From the Mouths of Babes: Kids Offer Lesson for Carson Officials

The city of Carson hosted a holiday banquet Wednesday night to honor young winners of an essay contest on good citizenship and, one by one, the children were presented medallions by a mayor under indictment on corruption charges.

Many of the bright-eyed winners, who attend Grades 3 through 8, wore their Sunday best and were accompanied by parents and grandparents. Nobody was going to let the latest round of corruption ruin a big night for the kids.

The Carson Community Center sparkled with camera flashes as proud parents posed their children in front of winning entries in the “Why I Like Carson” contest.

“Home sweet home, that is what I call Carson,” wrote April Brakefield, a fifth-grader from Del Amo Elementary School. “I pledge to be responsible, trustworthy, and a helpful citizen of Carson.”

April’s essay, like all 29 winning entries, should be required reading for anybody running for office in Carson, where the last two mayors have been arrested. The city of 90,000 has a long history of corruption, and federal prosecutors alleged last month that a majority of the City Council was for sale, extorting money from local businesses.

“The adults need to learn from the children,” agreed Chris Recalde, whose daughter Christine, a sixth-grader at Caroldale Learning Community, won first place honors for an essay about the Golden Rule.

And what is that rule? I asked.

“Do unto others,” Christine said, “as you would have them do unto you.”

Many public officials in Carson seem to have read only the first clause of the Golden Rule. And speaking of indicted Mayor Daryl Sweeney, Chris Recalde said:

“How can he present a good citizenship award to little kids when we don’t know if he’s a good citizen?”

Pat Hellerud, a retired teacher and longtime resident of Carson, looked at the dozens of children and said: “Thank God they’re not old enough to know the truth. Right now, Carson is in turmoil.”

Actually, the kids know more than you might think.

Fourth-grader Kevin Sanchez, who goes to 232nd Place Elementary School, said in his winning essay that he wanted to run for mayor. When I asked the 9-year-old why, he said:

“I just want to help City Hall.”

If the current mayor is convicted, Kevin said, he ought to do time. And his sentence?

“One year in prison.”

One indicted councilwoman, Raunda Frank, had the good sense to stay away from the awards banquet. But Mayor Sweeney, who has claimed he will be exonerated despite a grand jury depiction of him as the corruption ringleader, was front and center as he awaited the call to hand out awards.

“I think it’s a crying shame,” said Hellerud. “The honorable thing would be to resign, and if he’s proven innocent,” to try and return. “Would you want to do business with a city whose officials are under indictment?”

To find a master of ceremonies, Carson reached deep into its past for a mayor who hadn’t been indicted. Gil Smith spoke about the city’s great future, as represented by the bright children in the room, and then introduced the current mayor.

Sweeney, to everyone’s relief, had very little to say, and then he was joined by several other public officials. Children were given certificates and cash awards, and then posed for pictures with the mayor after he presented the medallions.

Had I been in charge, I would have hired an armored truck to deliver the cash directly to the homes of the children, just to make sure they got it.

City officials expected 100 people at the awards ceremony, but 200 showed up, and more chairs had to be carted in. The room was filled with warmth and with hope, and it made the South Bay city’s history of corruption all the more damnable.

Carson is a real place. It’s not some drive-by outpost that exists to be plundered and pillaged by one dirt-bag after another.

The winning essayists wrote passionately about Carson and suggested dozens of ways residents could make it an even better place to live.

“Another thing I can do,” wrote Kayleen Kaminura, a fourth-grader at Del Amo Elementary, “is to tell any person to never, never, ever leave the city of Carson.”

“Besides littering,” wrote Dominique Perry-Edwards, a sixth-grader at Glenn Hammond Curtiss Middle School, “this is just about the worst thing to happen: SHOOTING! Oh how I hate to turn on the news every day and always see something about someone being shot.... Another thing I would try to stop is: GRAFFITI. Yeah, all you gang-bangers know what I’m talking about.”

Anthony Gonzales, a third-grader at Del Amo, promised to quit being so stubborn and do his homework on time, help with the recycling, and give his teacher, Ms. Grabow, an apple.

“When I grow up,” he wrote, “I will be one of those who will be proud to say that I have been a better citizen for the city of Carson since I was 7 years old.”

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Correction: In Wednesday’s column, I incorrectly said former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani wrote two books this year. “America’s Mayor” was written by someone else, and Giuliani’s spokeswoman said Giuliani doesn’t refer to himself that way.

My apologies.

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Steve Lopez writes Sunday, Wednesday and Friday. Reach him at steve.lopez@latimes.com