Secretary of State May Take Municipal Elections Out of South Gate’s Hands

Secretary of State Bill Jones, making a rare visit to South Gate, announced an unprecedented plan Thursday to restore order to city elections long marred by violence, intimidation and allegations of fraud.

Jones said the state will monitor the electoral process in the blue-collar community. If problems persist, he warned, he will force the city to hand over election duties to the Los Angeles County registrar-recorder’s office.

“Never before has the state been required to employ such strict supervision of a city’s election administration,” said Jones, “but never before have we seen the crisis level of problems, intimidation and loss of voter confidence we have encountered here in South Gate.”

Jones, a Republican candidate for governor, visited in response to an appeal from City Clerk Carmen Avalos, who was stripped of her electoral duties by the City Council majority last month.

Avalos, who stood at Jones’ side during the news conference in front of City Hall, was cheered by a boisterous crowd of about 80 supporters, many of them police officers and others seeking a voter recall of the city’s leading officials.

Jones, during his speech, said he would order South Gate officials to provide a status report regarding the security of the recall petitions.

He said that corruption probes by the district attorney’s public integrity squad are continuing and that federal authorities have also taken note of South Gate’s volatile situation. FBI officials would not comment on whether they have launched a probe.

Jones’ visit drew cheers from South Gate police officials.

“The state’s involvement verifies what we’ve known all along: Something stinks,” said Lt. Vince Avila.

Conspicuously absent from the event were Avalos’ political opponents, Treasurer Albert Robles and members of the City Council majority.

Mayor Raul Moriel said he had not been notified of Jones’ visit. Vice Mayor Xochilt Ruvalcaba dismissed the event as a political ploy by Avalos. She claims Avalos is inept and biased.

“I respect the secretary of state, but he should leave local issues to us,” Ruvalcaba said.

Avalos has been battling for control of the clerk’s office ever since she defeated Ruvalcaba’s sister in elections last year. The council has slashed Avalos’ salary and staffing and taken away many of her normal duties, such as supervising elections.

When voter recall drives were launched last year against every elected official, including Avalos, the council replaced Avalos with an interim clerk, Julia Sylva, an attorney.

But some residents are questioning whether Sylva can be impartial, since county prosecutors said that she once represented two of Robles’ allies who have been charged with electoral fraud. Sylva denies that she represented the pair, saying she accompanied them to a meeting with prosecutors as a friend.

Still, Sylva’s involvement in the case came as a surprise to Moriel, who originally supported her appointment. “That makes me have second thoughts,” he said.

The city’s politics have long been racked by turmoil.

Last year, the business of a recall organizer was firebombed, an unsolved crime that police suspect was politically motivated. And in 1999, then-Mayor Henry Gonzalez was shot in the head after a council meeting in a crime that has never been solved. Gonzalez was slightly injured. Now a city councilman and an ally of Avalos, Gonzalez is also the target of a recall drive.