8 File to Complete Tury’s Rosemead Council Term

ROSEMEAD —  A current and a former member of the Planning Commission are among eight candidates in a special election scheduled for March 3 to fill the City Council seat of Louis Tury Jr. Tury resigned after pleading guilty in October to paying kickbacks for defense contracts for his machine shop.

One candidate for the seat is Robert De Cocker, 60, a retired school principal who serves on the Planning Commission. De Cocker, who graduated from Whittier College and received a master’s degree from USC, has served on the Traffic Commission and is active in the Chamber of Commerce and the Rosemead Boys and Girls Club.

Candidate Don Detora, who served on the Planning Commission for 12 years, is a 67-year-old retired businessman who owned and operated a laundry for 30 years.

Other Candidates

The other candidates include Warren L. Davis, 65. Before he retired, Warren was head of the Photographic, Sound and Electronics Department at California State University, Los Angeles. He was educated at California State University, Long Beach, and UCLA.

Dennis McDonald, 44, is a fire marshal who has lived in Rosemead since he was a child. Thomas D. O’Dell, 32, is a telephone data-systems technician who is active in the PTA and Rosemead Little League.

The other candidates are Jack W. Clair, a small-business owner who has lived here for 40 years; Frank Delia, a retired small-business owner who has lived in Rosemead since 1968; and Rudolfo Ruiz, 49, manager of a commercial printing company.

The winner will serve the remainder of Tury’s term, which expires in April, 1990.

Tury, who had served on the council since 1978 and was reelected last April, was required under law to resign after pleading guilty to mail fraud and paying $20,000 in kickbacks to secure government contracts for his business.

Proposition on Ballot

The special election is expected to cost the city $20,000.

Also on the ballot will be Proposition A, a measure asking voters to approve a tax increase from 6% to 8% on the occupancy of motel and hotel rooms. The increase had been approved by the City Council last July but the passage of Proposition 62 in November requires the city to obtain voter approval for any tax increase.

During the first four years in which the increased rate would be in effect, the city would make the additional $60,000-a-year revenue available to a nonprofit corporation to construct a building for the Chamber of Commerce and a new Rosemead Visitor Center.

There is no organized opposition to the measure.