Latino Council Majority for Santa Ana?

By Jennifer Mena

Oct. 15, 2002 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

If there’s any heat being generated in the race for Santa Ana City Council, it’s the friction between Mike Garcia, the candidate supported by the city’s Establishment, and maverick Eleazar Elizondo, who brings political experience from working for several state representatives.

It’s not that the two men, who are among six candidates running for the open seat in the city’s Ward 6, have many differences on the issues. Elizondo advocates spending more city money on after-school programs; Garcia has begun to support the idea too.

The essential difference is that Garcia has endorsements from elected city officials and the city’s fire and police organizations, while Elizondo is running against the status quo.

Whatever the outcome, there is a chance that a Latino city council majority could emerge from the Nov. 5 election for the first time in a city where 76% of the population is Latino. Four Latinos are among 10 candidates competing for three council seats. The victors will join incumbents Brett Franklin, Claudia C. Alvarez, Jose Solorio and Mayor Miguel A. Pulido, who is unopposed in his bid for a third term.

A Latino majority would reflect the increasing number of Latino voters in the city. The Redondo Beach-based AMAC political consulting firm reports that 47% of Santa Ana’s 80,990 voters are Latino, based on a study of surnames. Just three years ago, there were only 65,237 voters in Santa Ana, AMAC analyst Steve Sammarco said. He estimates that 6,000 of the 15,753 new voters are Latino.

In Ward 2, in central Santa Ana, incumbent Lisa Bist, first elected in 1998, faces a challenge from newcomer Jose Macias.

Macias, 25, a recent San Diego State University graduate who quit his job as a sales representative to run, said he is seeking office to “get the word out that we have a lot of people who are not involved in the community and their views are not being considered.”

He advocates that the city begin printing a Spanish-language newsletter to distribute to residents.

Macias, who reported raising $101 by the Sept. 30 filing deadline, wants more low-income housing, improvements made to the city’s three library branches and expansion of after-school programs to prevent children from joining gangs. He is using the Internet to get his message out.

Councilwoman Bist, 43, one of the founders of the Wilshire Square neighborhood group in 1987, has focused on neighborhood improvements and code enforcement, while supporting the Artists Village and downtown revitalization in her first term. She recently was named the city’s representative to the Orange County Transportation Authority’s Center Line Corridor Advisory Panel, and supports that project.

Bist said she wants more money spent on “neighborhood infrastructure and improvements, parks programming and staffing, and recreation services programming, as well as our library services.” She has raised $25,802.

In Ward 4, in the west-central part of the city, Zeke Hernandez, president of Santa Ana’s chapter of the League of United Latin American Citizens, is trying to defeat incumbent Alberta D. Christy.

Hernandez, 56, who has run unsuccessfully several times over 30 years, said he is trying again because he wants “to see if, as a City Council member, I can make changes to the city of Santa Ana to cut wasteful spending and spend money on parks and recreation, neighborhood infrastructure and roads.”

Hernandez, who had raised $1,973 by Sept. 30, also said the city library system needs more books, librarians and other resources.

“We have a sorry system that needs to be upgraded,” he said. “It needs to be improved to tie into our motto as the Education City.”

As a council member, Hernandez said he would try to blunt the influence of developers on decision-making.

For Christy, 57, a second term would allow her to focus on improving the city’s economic base, as well as on public safety and neighborhood improvements. Although crime has recently jumped in Santa Ana, Christy noted it still is below levels of 10 years ago. She said she wants to keep it down by spending on technology and other resources for the Police Department.

Christy, who has raised $17,925, takes credit for helping create the city’s new Youth Commission, a new Youth Expo event and a program that provides a children’s book to new mothers.

In Ward 6, the field is larger because there is no incumbent. Councilwoman Patricia A. McGuigan is ineligible to run after serving three four-year terms. Besides Elizondo and Garcia, the others vying for her seat are Stanley Fiala, Margaret Jeanne Flindt, Robert L. Henson Sr. and Jennifer Villasenor.

Villasenor, 24, who has raised $900, is trying to appeal to young voters. As a child, she said, she heard politics discussed at her kitchen table because her father was active in the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

The planner for the city of Rosemead also supports more after-school programs for youths. “We have to be concerned about public safety,” she said.

Henson, 68, a retired aerospace worker and veteran community activist, said he was encouraged to run by members of Riverview West Neighborhood Assn., where he is a director.

He is campaigning for improved road conditions, crackdowns on residential code violations and on vagrants who congregate on Harbor Boulevard near McFadden Avenue, and on prostitution along Harbor Boulevard.

“I would first like to see more improvements to the neglected parts of our city,” said Henson, who has raised $5,906. “I would like to see more code enforcement because it affects property value. I would like to see more businesses in the area, especially on Harbor.”

Candidate Stanley Fiala, 56, founder of EON, a company that seeks to stop the aging process, said he is running to move the city in a new direction. He said he has raised $300.

A Santa Ana resident for 15 years, Fiala advocates replacing Police Chief Paul M. Walters with a leader who wants to rehabilitate drug offenders instead of arrest them. He also believes the city should “highlight [Mexican] culture and take advantage of it, like Plaza Olvera [in Los Angeles] instead of pushing [immigrants] aside and arresting people who sell things on the street.”

Margaret Flindt, an office manager who specializes in making dental offices more efficient and profitable, said she is running because she feels some of the other candidates “don’t have the time to dedicate to the job.” Flindt, 42, said the city’s ethnic groups should be unified by city efforts.

She said she won’t accept campaign contributions to avoid being compromised, and if elected, will work on improving the city’s image, its roads, sidewalks and soccer fields.

If money is an indicator, Garcia and Elizondo are the front-runners in the Ward 6 race. Garcia reported raising $26,107; Elizondo has $17,295.

Elizondo, 30, has been on a ballot before, garnering 25,000 votes when he ran for county supervisor in 2000. Now a public affairs consultant and vice president of the board of the Neighborhood Housing Services of Orange County, he has worked for U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), state Sen. Gloria Romero (D-Los Angeles) and Assemblyman Lou Correa (D-Anaheim).

He believes the city should apply for public and foundation funds to offer more after-school and day care services. He said more programs would help reduce crime, teen pregnancy and high school dropouts, problems he believes are plaguing the city.

“Santa Ana is the youngest city of its size in the country,” Elizondo said. “We have over 60,000 young people, and I am worried about gangs, drugs and graffiti.”

Garcia, 30, worked as an economic development specialist in Santa Ana for five years until 1998. With his experience at his current job with a Santa Ana-based planning consulting firm, he said he knows how other city governments work and can be a more effective council member.

He is campaigning for stronger public safety programs as well as more redevelopment and after-school programs.

“I have 10-plus years working in the public sector,” said Garcia, who has been endorsed by some current council members, the local chamber of commerce, the Firemen’s Benevolent Assn. of Santa Ana and Santa Ana Police Officers Assn.

Pulido, 46, who has been mayor since 1994 and faces no term limits, has not responded to numerous requests for comment on what he hopes to achieve during another term. A secretary in his office said he has nothing to discuss since he is running unopposed.

By June, he had raised $66,849 for the uncontested race, more than double the amount raised by any other candidate. Eileen Padberg, the mayor’s campaign consultant, said Pulido raised the funds before he knew he had no opposition.

In a statement for a voters guide, Pulido wrote: “We have a detailed plan to continue reducing crime, invigorating our business districts and revitalizing our neighborhoods. I want you to be proud of the choice you’ve made to live in Santa Ana.”

Pulido has said he doesn’t see himself as a Latino mayor, but as a mayor who represents everyone. He and the other Latinos on the council do not always agree on issues. If one of the Latino challengers for the three council seats is elected, political observers say, a Latino majority on the council won’t necessarily translate into a consistent vote on all issues.

Jim Walker, chairman of Santa Ana Neighborhood Communication Linkages, an umbrella group of 57 neighborhood groups in the city, said, “The beauty is that we will see everyone as an individual instead of a bloc with a unified opinion.”

Even so, Fred Smoller, chairman of the political science department at Chapman University in Orange, said the election of a Latino majority to the Santa Ana council would be an “historical milestone.”

“There is underrepresentation of Latinos all over Orange County, so it is important for that reason,” Smoller said.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Who’s appearing on the ballot

Candidates on the Santa Ana city ballot:

Mayor

Miguel Pulido*, mayor/businessman

City Council Ward 2

Jose Macias, account executive

Lisa Bist*, council member/businesswoman

City Council Ward 4

Zeke Hernandez, association president-manager

Alberta D. Christy*, banker/council member