2 Councilmen Lost Elections But Won Praise : Politics: Wallace Edgerton and Clarence Smith will be replaced next week. Both were lauded for their commitment to the community.

By KIRSTEN LEE SWARTZ

July 19, 1992 12 AM PT

SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

LONG BEACH — The City Council is losing its most garrulous speaker and one of its most reserved.

Wallace Edgerton, who speaks with a fervor on almost any topic, will be replaced this week by Alan Lowenthal, a Cal State Long Beach psychology professor.

Clarence Smith, a man commended for his calm manner but sometimes criticized for being too low-key to be effective, will give up his seat to Civil Service Commissioner Doris Topsy-Elvord, the first African-American woman to serve on the council.

Though Edgerton’s defeat in April and Smith’s in June ended often bitter campaigns, both men received accolades throughout their last month in office.

Edgerton, a 58-year-old stockbroker who drew his financial support from a powerful array of development, shipping and union interests, was honored for his 17 years of service by middle-class citizens, who said he looked out for them too.

Smith, a 61-year-old retired city recreation administrator who was the council’s only African-American member for his six years in office, was credited with stemming the increase in liquor stores on the city’s west side.

One woman presented Edgerton at a meeting last month with a statue of a bronze horse, comparing the councilman to a white knight. And the president of the Filipino-American Assn. stood at the council podium recently to praise Smith as the adopted son of their community.

Those who backed Lowenthal and Topsy-Elvord are quick to point out that the councilmen were voted out for a reason. They lambasted Edgerton as insensitive to the poor and Smith as inactive.

But the councilmen’s last week included many kudos, and although both have said they will not run again for the council, neither man has ruled out a run for mayor.

Edgerton had served the longest. He took his seat in the City Council chambers 17 years ago, intending to use it as a steppingstone to the House of Representatives. But he decided over the years that local government was more interesting.

“I really learned about American politics here,” he said. “The most important political positions are not in Washington, D.C. They’re in the hometowns . . . because that’s where you live.”

Now he is considering his options, including returning to teaching, he said. He taught political science and public administration at the university level for 20 years.

Edgerton’s supporters think he ought to run for mayor in 1994.

“We’re looking ahead and telling him, ‘Go for mayor. Go for mayor,’ ” said Catherine Larosa, president of Beach Citizens for Long Beach.

But Edgerton has not made up his mind. “I’m not going to state that I’m not going to, but I don’t think it’s likely,” he said.

Larosa said she and her group want Edgerton to remain in politics because he stands up for neighborhoods.

When the city’s Traffic Commission tried to remove the parking from 7th Street and change Ocean Boulevard into a major thoroughfare, residents swarmed to a meeting to protest.

“Wallace Edgerton . . . stood up and defended the citizens, not a lot of people who had a lot of money to back him in office,” Larosa said.

But Lowenthal charged during the campaign that Edgerton “took a walk” and missed a vote on apartment development that allowed hundreds of single-family homes to be bulldozed and replaced by “tacky, high-density condos and apartments.”

Political observers say Edgerton lost his seat because he appeared insensitive to low-income residents. He was the leading force behind an ordinance that made it illegal for people to sleep overnight on public property.

“His main campaign strategy has been against the homeless,” said Marshall Blesofsy, vice president of Long Beach Area Citizens Involved, a neighborhood group that helped elect Lowenthal. “After he practically destroys the neighborhood, he blames the victims.”

Edgerton said his position was misunderstood. The national government’s lack of commitment to health care and education has put pressure on local government to solve the problems, he said.

“I’d like to address those issues, but I don’t have those resources,” Edgerton said. “So I would try to protect my city. And the way I would do that is to protect my middle class and protect my business people.”

Edgerton was dubbed “Waffling Wally” by a campaign opponent in the mid-’80s for a change in his position on rent control, and critics have used it since when he appeared to flip-flop on issues.

Edgerton has said he is just open-minded enough to consider all sides of an issue.

The campaign between Smith and Topsy-Elvord focused less on issues than on style.

“I don’t really know what his positions were,” said Topsy-Elvord, who defeated Smith by only 22 votes. “I’m much different from Clarence Smith. I can articulate the needs. I can build coalitions.”

Supporters say Smith did not lack talent in building coalitions, he just has a low-key style. Although Smith served just 1 1/2 terms, having first occupied the position by appointment, he was credited with building a network among the city’s ministers and some of the ethnic groups living in his inner-city district.

“Clarence has been in the people business all the time that I’ve known him,” said the Rev. Joe Chaney, president of the Ministers Alliance, a coalition of 40 churches that address social issues.

Paul Blanco, president of the Filipino-American Assn., said Smith helped designate the area from 20th to Spring streets along Santa Fe Boulevard as a Filipino neighborhood.

“Councilman Smith has been an adopted Filipino because of his tremendous contributions to our community,” Blanco said.

Smith worked to open up Long Beach parks and school grounds for the city’s youth after school hours and on weekends and tried to prevent the approval of new liquor stores.

Resident Ginni Moore, who described her westside neighborhood as isolated from the rest of the city by the Long Beach Freeway (710), credited Smith with taking video arcade games, which attract children and teen-agers, out of liquor stores and preventing the issuance of new liquor licenses for businesses along Santa Fe Avenue.

She added that the councilman’s slow manner of speaking often soothed the tempers of his colleagues.

“Everyone else would always be barking at each other,” Moore said, “and Clarence would always say, ‘Let’s talk.’ ”

Smith, like Edgerton, has not ruled out running for mayor in 1994. But he plans to hold off for six months and consider his options, which vary from opening his own business to working for a state board or commission.

“I just want to sort of wait and check on a few things,” Smith said.

Meanwhile, the council is gearing up for a politically packed summer, facing such issues as the fate of the Queen Mary and increasing taxes to fund more police officers. Council members expressed regret about their colleagues’ departure but are eager to work with two new members. “I think any time you have new people, the dynamics change and there’s some readjusting to do,” Mayor Ernie Kell said. “Life is a constant state of readjusting and readjusting again.”