3 Councilmen Hit by Ouster Effort in Monterey Park

MONTEREY PARK —  Three City Council members have been formally notified that an effort will be made to recall them because they adopted a “blatant racial resolution (that) has promoted hatred among the Asian, Anglo and Hispanic residents of Monterey Park.”

Kevin Smith, a 27-year-old developer, served the recall notices against council members Barry Hatch and Pat Reichenberger, both elected in April, and Cam Briglio, who is in the third year of his four-year term, at Monday’s council meeting.

All three recall targets voted for a resolution on June 3 that instructs police to cooperate with federal authorities “in regards to illegal aliens,” denounces cities that give sanctuary to political refugees, urges Congress to control the borders and supports the adoption of English as the nation’s official language.

Signed by Former Mayor

The recall notices were signed by Smith and four other Monterey Park residents, including David Almada, former mayor and councilman who was defeated for reelection in April.

City Clerk Pauline Lemire said that recall proponents must publish a legal notice and give the officeholders seven days to respond.

Then, the recall charges and responses can be printed on petitions for circulation to voters. The petitions must be signed by 4,482 registered voters (20% of the total) to force an election.

In their written charges, recall proponents accuse council members of hurting the elderly by rejecting a Taiwanese group’s proposed housing project for senior citizens and of adopting planning policies that have reduced revenues and forced cuts in police and fire services.

Denies Charges

The incumbents denied in separate interviews that the immigration resolution was racist, said that the senior citizens complex would be welcome in a better location and denied that emergency services have been reduced.

Recall proponents said the key issue in the recall effort is racism, which they contend is reflected in the immigration resolution.

Hatch has said he authored the resolution to focus attention on national problems created by the influx of illegal aliens.

Smith said he regards the resolution as an attack on immigrants, who compose a large part of the city’s population of about 60,000, which is 40% Asian and 35% Latino.

Controversial Resolution

The council has been under fire ever since it adopted the resolution on June 3 without advance notice and at the end of a council meeting that lasted beyond 1 a.m.

A group called the Coalition for Harmony in Monterey Park (CHAMP), which was created last year to oppose a proposal to declare English the city’s official language, has led the attack on the immigration resolution. CHAMP is preparing to circulate petitions asking the council to repeal the resolution, but has not joined the recall effort.

Michael Eng, one of the CHAMP leaders, said that he is not against the recall effort, but that CHAMP’s priority is the campaign to repeal the resolution.

Another coalition leader, R. C. (Pete) Hollingsworth, said the recall effort is “premature to say the least.”

Concerned Over Replacements

Hollingsworth said that before he could support a recall he would like assurance that any council successors would be an improvement over the incumbents.

“The situation is not right to bring back the deposed council members and run them again,” he said.

Voters in April ousted Councilwoman Lily Lee Chen, who was born in China, and two Latino councilmen, Rudy Peralta and Almada, and replaced them with Hatch, Reichenberger and Chris Houseman.

Chen said that she is concerned about the racial devisiveness that has occurred since the council election, but has no intention of participating in the recall.

Peralta said that he hopes the council will show “some flexibility” and retreat from its immigration resolution, which he said has offended many groups and is giving the city “a flaky image.”

‘Ugly Process’

“We’ve never had a recall in Monterey Park,” Peralta said. “I think it’s an ugly process. It disturbs me that it has come to this.”

But he said he has not decided what position to take if the recall goes forward.

Smith said that although Houseman voted against the housing complex for senior citizens, he is not a recall target because he has voted to repeal the immigration resolution.

“We left Chris out of the recall because he did not support the resolution and has not directly attacked the (immigrant) community,” Smith said.

No Endorsement

The only council member to both oppose the resolution and support the housing project is Mayor G. Monty Manibog, but the mayor said he is not endorsing the recall.

“I think people ought to finish out their terms unless there is some indictment or charge against them,” he said.

Manibog himself has been the target of recall threats in the past by a political opponent, Frank Arcuri, and Arcuri announced at this week’s council meeting that he intends to initiate a recall against Manibog, although he has not yet drawn up the formal charges.

Hatch said he is not worried by the recall attempt.

No Chance of Recall

“There’s no chance of our being recalled,” he said, adding that he believes that racism is being raised as an issue to advance the financial interests of developers.

“I’m no racist,” Hatch insisted. “We hear this week after week (at council meetings), and it’s getting kind of boring.”

Hatch said that recall backers are upset by a one-year moratorium that the new City Council imposed in April on construction of apartments, condominiums and commercial buildings. Council members supporting the moratorium claimed that poor development policies have led to traffic congestion, crowded mini-malls and shoddy condominiums.

The council has begun work to revise building standards and develop strategies for attracting large-scale, high-quality projects.

‘Developers Are Hurting’

“Developers are hurting and rightly so,” Hatch said. “Those who have been raping the city are going to be hurting. . . . The developers are frustrated. The people are excited and happy.”

Reichenberger said she spent four hours Saturday walking door-to-door to get voter reaction to new city policies and found that support for the council is strong.

She said that she has also been getting lots of telephone calls and letters from Latinos and Chinese urging her to stand by the controversial resolution on immigration.

Briglio denied that any of his votes were “racially motivated” and accused Almada and other recall proponents of spreading “a bunch of lies.”

‘Reign of Terror’

Almada said that the council is conducting a “reign of terror” at City Hall, citing the dismissal of two employees whose public relations activities helped Monterey Park win an All-America city award last year.

But Briglio said the employees lost their jobs only because federal funding that paid their salaries has run out.

Irv Gilman, a former councilman and leader of the Residents Assn. of Monterey Park (RAMP), which backed the winning candidates in the April municipal election, promised that RAMP would defend the incumbents and said the recall “is a blatant attempt to give the city back to the developers.”

Smith--whose family has built houses, condominiums and commercial buildings in Monterey Park--said that he undertook the recall knowing that council members would accuse him of acting for financial gain, but said his principal concern is with the racial division being created in the city.

‘Friends Are Being Attacked’

Although he is white, he said, he cannot stand by while “my friends are being attacked.”

All of the recall targets have urged higher development standards in Monterey Park, but Briglio said he no longer supports the building moratorium because it is blocking both good and bad projects.

The recall charges do not mention the building moratorium, but Smith has opposed the moratorium as unfair.

He said it is so broad that it is keeping a nursery school from building a fence, a pizza chain from remodeling a store and a developer from dividing a large, closed store into rentable spaces.

Accused of ‘Irresponsibility’

The petition accuses council members of “irresponsible participation in city planning.” Smith said the council has halted business growth, thereby reducing revenue and forcing cuts in police and fire services.

Police Chief Jon Elder, whose recommendation for an expansion of the police force by five positions was rejected when the council decided to reduce the utility tax, said the department is operating at about the same budget level as last year.

However, the council has changed police priorities by shifting three officers into a new traffic enforcement unit.

City Manager Lloyd de Llamas said the Fire Department budget has been increased to hire three more firemen.

Housing Project Cited

The petition criticizes the council’s refusal to approve a 43-unit apartment complex for senior citizens sought by the Taiwanese American Citizens League.

The petition says that the action, reversing a decision made by council members who were defeated in the April election, “exemplifies . . . insensitivity towards all of the senior citizens of Monterey Park.”

Peter Chen, an accountant who is one of the recall proponents, said he believes the vote against the Taiwanese group’s senior citizens complex was “racially based.”

“I feel the problem is that Chinese are not fairly represented on the City Council,” he said. “Chinese are being used as a scapegoat for all the problems of Monterey Park.

“We have gone from a model city to a hatred city,” he said.