Races Shape Up as Filing Deadline Passes

Several South Bay city officials won new terms in office Thursday when no one challenged them by the 5 p.m. deadline to file for the April 12 election.

In Lomita and Rolling Hills, there will be no election because none of the incumbents were challenged, while in Palos Verdes Estates, Gardena, Manhattan Beach and El Segundo at least one official will appear on the ballot unopposed.

In Lawndale and Carson, however, lively races are expected as incumbents in each city face a host of challengers.

Some cities will undoubtedly see some new faces at City Hall because the incumbents decided not to run. When that happens, state law extends the filing period five days--until 5 p.m. next Tuesday--on the theory that some people might have run if they had known they would not have to face an incumbent.

Here are the details.

LAWNDALE

In Lawndale, four of five City Council seats are up for grabs and the fifth council member is running for mayor.

Ten of the 12 candidates held off until the deadline day Thursday--some up to the last few minutes--to file the necessary papers at City Hall, hoping to keep their competition guessing which office they would seek.

To be decided in the election are a two-year mayoral seat, two four-year council seats and a two-year council seat, plus two ballot measures.

The last candidate to appear was Councilman Larry Rudolph, who showed up with his wife, Shirley, to file for mayor about five minutes before the 5 p.m. deadline. “It’s about time,” joked some city staff members who knew he had taken out papers and might file for the office.

Rudolph, 50, until recently had not been expected to run because his four-year council term does not expire until 1990. If elected mayor, his council term will be filled by appointment or special election.

Mayor Sarann Kruse, 48, also was among the last-minute filers Thursday. She has been a council member since 1976 and will be seeking her fourth term as mayor.

Also vying for mayor are first-time candidates Nancy J. Marthens, 44, a business data analyst for TRW, and Ronald V. Maxwell, 25, an aerospace production scheduler with Voi-Shan. Five candidates are running for the two four-year council terms. They are incumbent Councilmen Harold E. Hofmann, 55, and Terry W. Birdsall, 48; Planning Commissioner Carol Norman, 56; Virginia Rhodes, 52, an office manager who ran unsuccessfully for council in 1986 and for school board in 1982, and Ralph C. Williams, 51, a law-enforcement paralegal and first-time candidate.

The three candidates for the two-year seat include incumbent Councilman Dan McKenzie, 72; homemaker and mother of three Tina Zarro, 30, a first-time candidate, and Herman Weinstein, 65, a flight engineer and real estate businessman who in the mid-1960s and mid-1970s ran unsuccessfully for council and school board.

The two-year seat is a one-time-only opening designed to align the expiration of terms so that only two council seats and the mayor’s seat will be filled in each election. The current arrangement has been in effect since 1982, when the position of mayor, formerly filled by a vote of council members, was made an elected office with a two-year term.

Also to be decided in Lawndale are two ballot measures.

Proposition A, placed on the ballot by the City Council, would authorize a $5-million expansion of the Civic Center, including a 20,000-square-foot community center with a 500-seat auditorium, 5,000 additional square feet of office space and, in conjunction with Los Angeles County, a 3,500-square-foot library and 3,150-square-foot health center. The county has not yet committed the funding for its share of the project, estimated at $1 million.

Proposition B, an initiative that qualified for the ballot with 841 signatures, would require voter approval for public projects that cost more than $1 million in city funds.

CARSON

In Carson, where political struggles are intense, nine candidates are vying for three City Council seats in the April 12 election, and control of City Hall is at stake.

The seats of Mayor Kay Calas and council members Vera Robles DeWitt and Michael Mitoma will be on the ballot, and all three must win reelection to maintain the control they achieved when Mitoma won a special election last year. The special election was necessary when former Councilman Walter J. Jake Egan was ousted after his conviction in a political corruption case on fraud and extortion charges.

If any of the three fail to win reelection, the balance of power on the council could tip to the opposition council faction, Sylvia Muise and Tom Mills, neither of whom is up for election.

In addition to the incumbents, six others filed for the race: Aaron Carter, an ally of Muise and Mills who came in second when Mitoma was elected; Gaddis Farmer, a planning commissioner who has run before and is considered an independent; Al Blanco, who has been associated with Muise and Mills; Leon Cornell, another Mills-Muise ally who is senior building maintenance supervisor in the city’s Parks and Recreation Department; Elwood (Red) Hathaway, who had been allied with Egan, and political newcomer Gary Hoppenrath.

Four others took out filing papers but did not turn them in by the deadline: Juanita Millender-McDonald, Arlene Descargar, Mervin (Marvin) A. Clayton and Roye Love, an independent who came in third in 1987.

In an interview, Love said he had decided not to file as a Carson council candidate but instead would run as a candidate for the county supervisor seat of Kenneth Hahn, who is recovering slowly from a stroke.

GARDENA

Mayor Donald L. Dear, a junior high school teacher first elected to the City Council in 1978, is unopposed in his bid for reelection, as is City Clerk May Doi, who will begin her third term.

The two incumbents on the City Council, however, face two challengers: Ollie Hadley, a management consultant at Northrop and an 11-year resident of Gardena’s Hollypark section who ran unsuccessfully for the council in 1986; and Eldore (Bud) Nelson, a retired Douglas Aircraft inspector and community activist who has lived in Gardena for 37 years.

Incumbent Councilman Paul Tsukahara, a Gardena dentist, is seeking his third term on the council. Councilman James Cragin, a Gardena insurance adjuster first appointed to the council in 1982 and reelected in 1984, also is running for another four-year term.

The filing date for city treasurer was extended to Tuesday after incumbent George Kobayashi, who held the office for 13 years, decided not to run. Lorenzo Ybarra, a Gardena certified public accountant and a native of the city, has filed for the office.

LOMITA

The only two politicians up for election in Lomita this year, incumbent Councilmen Charles Belba and Hal Croyts, are unopposed. Belba, 54, is a teacher who was first elected to the council in 1968. Croyts, 67, has served on the council since 1980. He is a retired purchasing agent for the City of Carson.

MANHATTAN BEACH

Three incumbent City Council members--Gil Archuletta, Jan Dennis and Bob Holmes--face challenges from Pat Collins, who serves on the city’s Planning Commission, and Steve Barnes, a former planning commissioner.

Candidates interested in becoming city clerk have until Tuesday to file candidacy papers because incumbent John Lacey has decided not to run again. Timothy Lilligren, an accountant who serves on the city’s Board of Zoning Adjustment, already has filed for the position.

Treasurer Duncan Kelly is running unopposed for a fourth term.

EL SEGUNDO

Three council seats will be up for grabs in El Segundo. Because two incumbents--Jack Siadek and Keith Schuldt--announced that they will not run for reelection, candidates have until next Tuesday to file. Incumbent Carl Jacobson is seeking reelection. Also running for a seat on the council will be Thomas A. Jolly, who described himself on filing papers as an inventor; businessman Gary Schultz, and electrical contractor J. B. Wise.

Incumbent City Clerk Ronald Hart will face challenger Richard Fennil, an insurance broker. City Treasurer Louise Eckersley will face no opposition in her bid for another term.

El Segundo voters also will decide the fate of an initiative aimed at controlling growth.

ROLLING HILLS

For the third time in six years, Rolling Hills will not hold a city election because the two City Council incumbents are running without opposition.

Councilmen Tom Heinsheimer, who has held office since 1972, and Godfrey Pernell, who was first elected in 1975, were the only candidates at the close of filing Thursday.

Rolling Hills has not had a contested council race since 1982.

P.V. ESTATES

Veteran City Treasurer Hazel Elder is running without opposition in Palos Verdes Estates because she was the only candidate to file by the 5 p.m. deadline. Elder has been treasurer since 1969.

However, there will be a race for two open City Council seats--the first contested council election since 1982. Three candidates have declared already, and filing does not close until 5 p.m. Tuesday because incumbent Councilman Ronald Florance is not running. The second seat has been vacant since June when Barbara Culver resigned to become city clerk, an appointed position.

The three candidates who have filed are attorney Michael T. Williams, community volunteer Rita Bayer and James R. Nyman, a management services director.

This story was compiled from reports by Barbara Baird, Gerald Faris, Adrianne Goodman, George Stein and Tim Waters.