Officials Hope Election Will Aid Carson’s Image

Carson officials are counting on aggressive development efforts and new leadership from an upcoming municipal election to help shake the stigma left by a political corruption scandal.

“We have a bright future,” said Councilwoman Julie Ruiz Raber. “We don’t want to forget what has happened, but we must move forward.”

The city is pushing a plan to make a 157-acre former landfill home to a team that the National Football League hopes to bring to the Los Angeles area by the 2008 season. Failing that, officials are proposing a new retail and entertainment complex for the site.

Community and business leaders are also looking to a municipal election in March to finally break a logjam over board and commission appointments that has developed on the City Council over the last nine months. Three of five council seats are at stake in the election.

Though some local activists and officials remain skeptical about how much to expect from a newly configured council in the near future, the optimism of others comes in part from several events that indicate the city may indeed be ready to move forward, some officials said.

On Dec. 20, former Mayor Daryl Sweeney, who stepped down in July 2003, was sentenced to nearly six years in prison for his role in a bribery scandal involving millions of dollars in municipal contracts.

Also in December, a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge voided an $850,000 housing grant that a developer secured by paying a bribe to Sweeney’s predecessor. Pete Fajardo was sentenced to 15 months in prison last fall for soliciting more than $100,000 in bribes while on the council.

And in November, the city achieved one major objective: filling a longtime vacant fifth seat on a fractious council.

Councilman Harold C. Williams joined the panel Dec. 8 after his victory in a special election. The vacancy he filled was created when Mayor Jim Dear left his council post after being elected to replace Sweeney in a special election in March.

Filling that fifth seat was seen as key to circumventing an impasse over board and commission appointments that had divided the council. Officials expect the council to find it easier to form a quorum and avoid delays in city business caused by absences or stalemates.

Williams, a civil engineer, is the public works director for Gardena and formerly for Carson. He also has served on a number of city commissions. He must run again in the March election if he wants to stay on the council. That election will determine whether Williams stays on, who replaces outgoing Mayor Pro Tem Kay Calas and whether Dear keeps his job. Dear and Calas have feuded over some appointments.

Williams said he wants to build good working relationships among council members and to push for development projects that are environmentally sound and enhance the community’s quality of life.

But some local activists remain skeptical about the council changes because of the close ties among Williams, Raber and Dear, who endorsed Williams in his council bid and contributed to his campaign. Some fear the formation of another voting bloc if the council makeup stays the same.

“In a city where we’ve had so much corruption, I don’t think we want a setup where there isn’t much of a balance of power,” said Rita Boggs, a longtime activist who ran for the open council seat in November.

Robert Lesley, a retired port police officer, said he is looking forward to the March 8 election for candidates who are “thinking for the better of this community, business and residents.”

Some officials envision remaking Carson, about 18 miles south of downtown Los Angeles, into a destination city to attract shoppers, restaurant patrons and sports enthusiasts.

Carson plans to develop the potential NFL site into a retail and entertainment complex if the city fails to strike a deal with the league. Sources familiar with the league’s position on the possible sites have said that the Coliseum and Anaheim are in the lead, followed by the Rose Bowl, then Carson.

Other projects include a plan to revitalize the Carson Street corridor. The city is also trying to attract restaurants, a movie theater and other amenities it lacks. An $80-million renovation of the South Bay Pavilion shopping mall also is underway.

But despite its ambitious plans, restoring Carson’s civic pride after the bribery scandal will prove challenging, city officials acknowledge.

“The shame, the disgust that people felt is going to have a long-lasting, negative effect,” Dear said.

Besides Sweeney and Fajardo, among those charged in the corruption scandal were former Councilman Manuel Ontal Jr. and former Councilwoman Raunda Frank. All pleaded guilty.

Sweeney, whom federal prosecutors considered the ringleader in the bribery scandal, pleaded guilty to conspiring to extort $600,000 from a waste hauler that was competing for a $60-million contract.