8 Candidates in Low-Key Campaign for 3 Seats : San Fernando Takes Run for Council at a Walk

In the city of San Fernando, an “elaborate” campaign for the City Council means the candidate had flyers professionally printed.

Fund raising to buy slick ads in this 2.4-square-mile town is unimportant. The really eager candidates try to reach every voter’s doorstep to ask for support. If a candidate feels confident that such all-out campaigning is unnecessary, then he or she depends on the voters to come to him to discuss city issues.

‘Everybody Knows You’

“It’s a low-key campaign this year,” said incumbent Mayor Doude Wysbeek, 47. “When you live in a city this size, everybody knows you. I live in the town, my business is in town, everybody knows where I’m at.”

Eight candidates, including three incumbents, are vying for three seats on the five-member City Council in the election April 8, their efforts ranging from Wysbeek’s low-key style to the bustle of Ray Silva’s busy headquarters in a barrio storefront.

However simple the campaigns, though, even small town politics has its frictions.

With the majority of the council seats at stake, alliances have been formed around personality conflicts as well as issues. One incumbent, Councilwoman Carmillis (Cam) M. Noltemeyer, has been targeted for defeat by her two fellow incumbents, Wysbeek and Roy M. Richardson.

Noltemeyer, in turn, is outspoken in her desire to see a change in the council majority. She would like Wysbeek and Richardson out and two other candidates in--Beverly DiTomaso, 53, chairperson of the Parks and Recreation Commission, and Gordon K. Broberg, 38, a planning commissioner.

Silva, a newcomer to city affairs, is hoping for a victory that would make him the only council member from the predominantly Latino south side. Councilman Jess Margarito, who became the first Latino on the council in 18 years when he was elected in 1984, is supporting Silva, advising him to run a grass-roots campaign much like Margarito’s in 1984.

Silva’s is the most ambitious campaign. He has outspent the other candidates, taking in $2,460 in contributions and loans, and spending almost all of it on mailers and handouts. None of the other candidates has spent more than $500.

Silva, a buyer for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power whose family has lived in San Fernando since 1910, is serving his first term on the planning commission. He organized a crime watch group last year called Vecinos Unidos, or United Neighbors, to fight drug dealing. He has a small campaign office in the heart of the drug-dealing area of the barrio and about 30 volunteers helping him.

As a councilman, Silva said, he would push for improved housing and public safety.

He stresses that he is the only candidate from the Latino south side and is counting on support from Latinos. “If five council members all live in the same area, how can the entire city be represented?” he asked.

Joseph Funk, 40, owner of a San Fernando security firm, is running the quietest campaign, choosing not to send mailers and relying largely on his recognition among business people. When asked about his chances to win, Funk replied, “I don’t know. Your guess is as good as mine.”

Licensing Procedures

Funk said his main goal as a council member would be to attract new businesses by streamlining licensing procedures to make it easier to locate in San Fernando.

Wysbeek and Richardson are allies who hold similar views. Both favor renovation of the San Fernando Mall area and strict building code enforcement to improve housing. They joined forces with Daniel Acuna, 45, a Postal Service carrier, to oust Noltemeyer.

Noltemeyer regularly votes against the majority and recently initiated referendum drives aimed at thwarting a council decision to build a new police station.

Wysbeek predicted that Noltemeyer will have the toughest election battle. “I personally think if there is one who is vulnerable it is probably Cam, because of the stances she has taken,” Wysbeek said. “I know some people feel very strongly that she is too controversial and too against everything.”

“I know that they have targeted me,” Noltemeyer said of Richardson, Wysbeek and Acuna. “If I wanted to play it safe I would be a ‘yes boy.’ ”

She accused council members of having “secret agendas,” meaning, she said, “that their decisions are so set before they even get to council chambers that, no matter what I say, I am not listened to.”

She wants the city to adopt a general plan and feels the council needs to be more attentive to recommendations from city commissions, which she says are now ignored. She also criticized the council’s appointment of James B. Hansen to a council seat left vacant in September by the resignation of Patrick Modugno. The council could have left the seat vacant until the election.

“It’s that kind of politics that is unfair to residents,” Noltemeyer said.

Noltemeyer launched two controversial petition drives to reverse City Council decisions on the construction and location of a $2-million police station. Both times she gathered enough signatures to block the council’s plans.

The first petition, signed by 10% of the voters, opposed a council decision to exchange city-owned land where the station now stands for a larger tract of county-owned land a block away. Faced with a choice between rescinding the action or submitting the issue to the voters, the council chose to rescind.

The council then purchased the land it would have acquired in the exchange with the county.

Second Drive Launched

A second petition drive gathered signatures by 15% of the voters, enough to call an election on the issue. Residents will vote in June on whether the council or the voters should have authority over land-use decisions on the civic center property that would be left vacant by construction of a new police station.

The council has already gone on record favoring use of the site for the expansion of the Los Angeles County public library next door.

Wysbeek and Richardson brushed off both petitions, contending they are not accurate gauges of the community’s feelings.

“You can get 1,500 signatures on any subject,” Wysbeek said.

Noltemeyer called that response an example of the council “ignoring the people” by not taking the petitions seriously.

DiTomaso and Broberg also supported the petition drives. With Noltemeyer, they oppose any new development in the civic center until the city adopts a general plan for the area.

“I think the people must look at the police station controversy as a redevelopment issue, not a law enforcement issue,” said Broberg, a Southern California Edison supervisor.

Alternative Uses

He maintained that alternative uses for the police station sites have not been studied. He said the city should adopt a general plan that would promote commercial development, taking advantage of the number of people attracted to the civic center, the area which he said “is going to determine where San Fernando goes in the future.”

He said that attracting new businesses and re-evaluating the city’s redevelopment plan would be his priorities on the council.

“If we are going to attract business, the city has got to improve its image,” Broberg said. “Clean up graffiti, crack down on absentee landlords.” He wants to devise specific plans for each of the city neighborhood.

All council candidates run independently in the at-large, nonpartisan election, but Wysbeek, Richardson and Acuna are a team. The three were endorsed by the San Fernando Police Officer’s Assn., and a committee made up mostly of business owners, Citizens for a United San Fernando, raised $744 to send out a joint mailer for them.

Wysbeek and Richardson are both running quiet campaigns, relying mostly on their support from the business community due to longtime participation in the San Fernando Chamber of Commerce and other associations. Both are businessmen. Wysbeek runs H. C. Stroud Electric Motor Service and Richardson owns a San Fernando Mall stationery store.

Cite Same Accomplishments

Both incumbents include city park improvements, the adoption of a city zoning ordinance and bringing Valley Cable television to San Fernando as their accomplishments during the past four years.

Richardson, the leading vote-getter in the council elections of 1978 and 1982, called Acuna the “most electable” of the other candidates because of his name recognition.

Acuna said that in 23 years as a postman, he has walked every street in the city. He also owns a florist shop and served seven years on the planning commission. He said he feels “comfortable” with the Wysbeek-Richardson alliance, but has made a point of also campaigning on his own, using separately mailed literature.

The council needs “to get aggressive” in attracting new businesses, Acuna said, calling for formation of an independent group of citizens and merchants to come up with a strategy.

While Broberg and DiTomaso share some views with Noltemeyer--including support for the referendum drives--both emphasized they are not her allies.

DiTomaso, executive assistant to the president of Robinson’s department stores, said she will bring a “common sense approach” to city government by asking “how much does it cost and why are we doing it?” She expects to draw support from longtime homeowners.

She said the council needs to be more creative in looking for ways to renovate the San Fernando Mall.

“I think people feel confused and saddened by the deterioration of the downtown mall,” she said, “We need some kind of ambiance to the mall,” she said, suggesting more restaurants and boutiques around a historical theme.