McDonald Quits; Will Run Against Mayor Next Year

Lawndale Planning Commissioner Gary McDonald resigned Wednesday, announcing that he will run against Mayor Sarann Kruse in the April, 1990, municipal election.

At a City Council meeting Tuesday night, Kruse had asked City Atty. David J. Aleshire whether McDonald may have violated conflict-of-interest laws in February when he took a Lawndale developer’s plans to the county Fire Department for a ruling on sprinkler installation. McDonald obtained the ruling, made a note of it on the plan and affixed his signature.

In December, Kruse added, McDonald had received a $220 gold coin from the same developer, Mohamad Pournamdari. The developer could not be reached for comment.

In a Statement of Economic Interests filed in April at City Hall, McDonald declared the receipt of the $220 gift. In an interview Wednesday, he said he did not view the gift as posing a potential conflict of interest but felt the Gold Eagle coin was a token “symbolizing freedom and the American way.”

Aleshire said that conflict-of-interest regulations apply when a public official has a financial interest in a project or receives compensation. “There is nothing that deals with someone who has no financial stake” in a project or its outcome, Aleshire said.

McDonald said he received no payment. He said Pournamdari was not given any special favors as a result of his help.

McDonald conceded Wednesday that it had been a mistake to help the developer on the project and to accept the gold coin while serving on the Planning Commission. The five-member commission makes recommendations to the City Council on building and planning matters, which often affect developers.

McDonald said he is not resigning over the conflict-of-interest issue but because he believes Kruse is conducting a “vendetta” against him that is distracting the council from pressing city issues.

“I make mistakes. I’m not trying to be God,” McDonald said. “But she will blow it all out of proportion.”

Kruse said Wednesday: “I personally don’t care what Gary McDonald says in his resignation letter. I’m glad he’s gone. Now maybe the city can get on with city business.”

McDonald is a firebrand in city politics who is so closely allied with the three-man majority on the City Council that a former city manager once called him “the sixth councilman.” He was an unsuccessful candidate for a council seat in 1982 and for the city clerk’s seat in 1986.

Ironically, it was Kruse who appointed McDonald to the Planning Commission in 1986. They were soon at odds, however, and twice she has attempted to remove him from the commission over what she called improper conduct, including a public argument with a local businessman.

In 1988, McDonald admitted plagiarizing from Kruse’s 1986 ballot statement when he wrote a ballot statement for Councilman Harold E. Hofmann’s reelection. He later admitted his error, saying: “I realize now I was totally wrong.”

McDonald, 29, is a lifelong resident of Lawndale who owns a small development consulting firm called Government Service. In the 1988-89 Statement of Economic Interests, he reported his income from the company as being $10,000 or less. Under questioning from the city attorney Tuesday night, McDonald said he received no payment for helping Pournamdari.

“I didn’t do it as a commissioner, I didn’t do it for my business, I did it as an individual helping another individual,” he said Wednesday, adding that last spring he was a strong critic of a Pournamdari project because it lacked sufficient parking. He abstained from voting on a subsequent project when it came before the Planning Commission in May, he said.

The council was divided on whether McDonald’s action represented a conflict of interest.

Hofmann said that because the Lawndale Planning Commission has no authority over the county Fire Department, “I wonder whether there would have been a conflict even if he had gotten paid for it.”

Councilwoman Carol Norman said, however, because McDonald was a Planning Commissioner, his signature might give officials the impression the project had city approval. Kruse and Norman have accused McDonald of vigilantism at City Hall, saying he conducts one-man investigations of city employees without respect for due process.

Hofmann, who reappointed McDonald last year, characterized him as a tireless worker who often hits pay dirt in his investigations--including problems in the Planning and Maintenance departments.