Carson’s Resistance to Renaming Park Upsets Samoan Community

Winfield Scott Park in Carson has seen its share of football games, family picnics and other outdoor activities. But today, it is the focus of a City Hall fight tinged with racial overtones about renaming the park for a former longtime city worker of Samoan descent.

The Carson City Council on Tuesday stalled a drive by a group of residents to rename the park after the employee, Harry T. Foisia, who was known throughout the community for his volunteer work with troubled youths. Foisia died last December at the age of 39.

Supporters of renaming Scott Park after Foisia marched in front of City Hall before Tuesday’s council meeting. However, a divided council postponed a decision until its next meeting.

Several council members said they needed more time to examine the city’s policy on naming parks. But Councilwoman Vera Robles DeWitt, who alone opposed the delay, faulted the council’s indecision.

“What we’re doing is penalizing this one individual group because we don’t have our act together,” DeWitt said.

Foisia, the city’s popular code enforcement manager, who was revered in the Samoan community and well-known throughout the city, had the title “high chief,” bestowed on him during a visit to American Samoa in 1986.

In June, a citizens group petitioned the council to rename the park for Foisia. The committee members put together an inch-thick proposal detailing his contributions. Instead, the council named the emergency operations center in the City Hall basement after him.

At the time, council members said they did not want to set a precedent by naming a park after a city worker. Later, city officials, led by Mayor Michael I. Mitoma, raised questions about the amount of volunteer work Foisia did with city youths.

The citizens committee, composed largely of members of Carson’s Samoan community, maintains the city consistently ignores the contributions of its Samoan residents and has treated the committee unfairly. Committee members point to the dedication of four other city parks, three of which were named after prominent African-American community leaders. The fourth was named after former Councilman John Calas, who was white and the late husband of current Councilwoman Kay Calas.

“They didn’t have to go through what we did,” Myron Thompson, the committee’s chairman, said.

Thompson said the council’s decisions are discriminatory and culturally insensitive.

“What else can it be besides discrimination when we’ve refuted all arguments?” Thompson asked.

Before the council voted Tuesday night, committee members handed out slick pamphlets and sported T-shirts with Foisia’s name in support of the park renaming. Several well-known community leaders--Samoan and otherwise--told the council that Foisia was more than a worker, that his volunteer contributions made a lasting impact on the city’s youths.

Dhyan Lal, principal of Carson High School, praised Foisia’s dedication.

“I think a young man such as Harry, who helped so many young kids, deserves a park in his memory,” Lal said.

Much of the committee’s criticism focused on Mitoma. But Mitoma repeated that he opposes naming any park after an individual and said he resents committee members who say they will work against his reelection next year.

“While I liked Harry, Harry was a tremendous asset to the city, what I don’t like is people threatening me,” Mitoma said.

Before the city’s incorporation in 1968, Scott Park belonged to Los Angeles County. Winfield Scott was a famed general in the Mexican War and was commander of the Union Army at the outbreak of the Civil War.