‘89 Montebello Council Race Costliest Yet : Elections: The record spending was spurred in part by an Orange County group spending $50,600 to beat two candidates.

MONTEBELLO —  The hard-fought campaigns for three City Council seats last November were the costliest in city history, fueled in part by an Orange County political group’s $50,600 effort to defeat two candidates.

Seven candidates and two political action committees spent about $250,000 in a race that sparked personal attacks in mailers and sharp exchanges over whether the city should be given more power to condemn land for redevelopment. Two other candidates listed no expenditures.

Citizens for a Safer Montebello, a Costa Mesa-based organization, spent almost $30,000 on a mailing blitz attacking candidates William Molinari and Larry Salazar, who opposed a plan to expand the city’s eminent domain powers, according to campaign financial statements. The committee spent another $21,000 on telephone surveys and mailers in support of hospital administrator Joseph Coria’s unsuccessful campaign.

Molinari, who had served five years on the council before being defeated in 1987, captured one of the council seats in the November race. Salazar finished fourth in the race for three seats. Mayor Ed Pizzorno and Councilman Arnold Alvarez-Glasman were reelected.

Citizens for a Safer Montebello is headed by Brad Perrin, secretary and treasurer of a Santa Ana-based company that runs the Quiet Cannon restaurant and discotheque in Montebello. The committee’s effort was funded entirely by Bear Tracks Corp., a Tustin-based construction consulting firm that lists Perrin as president.

Some city officials had hoped the issue of eminent domain had died when the city’s residents voted 3 to 1 last May to keep the city from condemning land to redevelop portions of south and central Montebello, but the issue surfaced during the November council campaigns.

Though eminent domain was used to develop land in north Montebello, candidates were divided on whether the condemnation powers should be expanded.

Some argued it was viable tool to revitalize the town’s business district. Others described it as a plot to level old houses and business in the largely industrial south side of Montebello. The opponents argued that longtime business owners and homeowners would be unfairly moved off their property to make way for larger private developments.

Incumbent Alvarez-Glasman, a target of eminent domain opponents, apparently emerged as the biggest spender in his successful effort to retain his seat. Alvarez-Glasman, who has yet to file his final financial statement, said in an interview last week that his campaign cost about $60,000.

At one point, he voted with the council majority in 1988 to give the city Redevelopment Agency expanded condemnation powers. But as criticism mounted during the City Council campaign, he pledged he would not vote for eminent domain again as a city councilman.

Alvarez-Glasman said he was “amazed” at the high cost of last year’s campaign and attributed the expense to the “mudslinging that goes on.” He said smear campaigns have become so prevalent that the only way to combat them is with a high-profile campaign.

“It’s unfortunate that so much money has to go into a campaign,” he said.

The cost of the election--about 47% higher than the 1987 council election in which four candidates ran for two seats--and the heavy financial involvement of Citizens for a Safer Montebello, was criticized by Molinari and Salazar last week.

“It is like we said all along,” Salazar said. “Special interest groups are, for some reason, trying to control the City Council.”

One mailer, sent to Montebello residents by Citizens for a Safer Montebello, was a “Special Report” which proclaimed that the Montebello Police and Firemen’s Assn. was concerned about Molinari’s candidacy.

The mailer said a letter from the association accused Molinari of “spreading lies designed to terrorize senior citizens and homeowners to further his personal political ambition.”

The association denied any knowledge of the piece, and its lawyer demanded that Citizens for a Safer Montebello stop using the association’s name, said Montebello Police Detective Ralph Newcomb, former vice president of the association.

Salazar and his “ongoing circus act,”--a reference to his council campaign--were also castigated in the mailer. Salazar said the day he became a leader in the fight against eminent domain, he became Perrin’s political foe.

Perrin did not return several phone calls last week.

Molinari’s adversarial relationship with Brad Perrin and his father, David, goes back to 1987 when he voted against the expansion of the Quiet Cannon and the creation of a $1.1-million parking lot to accommodate the expansion.

Molinari became the target of biting mailers by a David Perrin political action committee during the 1987 City Council election. The committee also requested that the district attorney’s office investigate Molinari’s campaign finances two weeks before the election, then almost immediately sent out a mailer that stated, “even the district attorney’s office has been asked to investigate Councilman Molinari.” The district attorney referred the request to the Fair Political Practices Committee, which later found no basis to investigate Molinari.

Molinari lost the 1987 election.

Molinari sued David Perrin; local developer Michael Minasian, who organized David Perrin’s committee; Quiet Cannon Montebello Inc. of Santa Ana; chief operating officer Kenneth Dennis, and others for libel in Los Angeles Superior Court.

Because the suit is still pending, Molinari declined to comment specifically about the Perrins, Quiet Cannon Montebello Inc., or the Bear Tracks Corp.

But he said: “Generally, I have a concern whenever any outside organization for political or financial reasons puts that kind of money into a local city council election. It’s like bringing a battleship in to sink a rowboat. . . . I can’t understand why any economic interest 40 miles away would have that kind of interest in a community they don’t live in.”

Councilmen Art Payan and Alvarez-Glasman, while expressing some concern over the amount of money Citizens for a Safer Montebello spent during the campaign, questioned the description of the committee’s sponsors as “outside interests.”

“It’s hard to say they are truly outside interests,” Alvarez-Glasman said. “I believe they are the No. 1 sales-tax revenue producers in the city. They certainly have an interest in the city.”

Before the election last November, Citizens for a Safer Montebello also declared its support for Alvarez-Glasman. But he did not receive direct contributions from the committee, according to its campaign statement.

Payan, who in 1987 spent about $51,000 on his reelection campaign, said he would like to find a way to lower campaign expenses.

“It’s difficult for a candidate when he realizes that in order to be competitive he has to pour so much money into a race,” Payan said. “It gets out of hand.”

1989 MONTEBELLO CITY ELECTIONS

Candidate Votes Campaign Cost Ed Pizzorno (i) 3,651 $24,556 Arnold Alvarez-Glasman (i) 2,438 (est.) 60,000 William Molinari 2,800 13,316 Larry Salazar 1,853 14,727 Betty Escobar 1,832 23,150 Joseph Coria 1,492 43,039 Shirley Garcia 1,380 9,347 Albert Phillips 330 0 Michael Baldenebro 201 0

(i) incumbent

Winners names in bold type

Source: Montebello city clerk and Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder