Wide-Open Council Race Boils Down to Battle of Business Leaders, Activists : Election: Ten candidates are running for three seats on the City Council. There is only one incumbent.

WHITTIER —  A struggle for control of the City Council pits longtime business leaders in a wide-open election against activists who want to preserve unspoiled hillsides and neighborhoods of single-family homes.

Voters will choose from 10 candidates to fill three of five council seats April 14 in an election that could reshape Whittier’s power structure and the city itself.

Only one-term incumbent Robert F. Woehrmann seeks reelection. Mayor Thomas K. Sawyer and Councilman Myron P. Claxton are retiring. Woehrmann, a prosperous businessman with a record of service in charitable organizations, typifies the leaders who have directed Whittier’s course for the past 40 years. Candidates Lee Strong and Larry Haendiges boast similar credentials. But such candidates are no longer shoo-ins.

In the four years since Woehrmann joined the council, local activists have grown in number and strength. They formed organizations such as the Whittier Conservancy and Friends of the Whittier Hills, and mounted efforts to save historic buildings, oppose apartment construction in neighborhoods of single-family homes and prevent development of the hillsides that stretch north and east of this town of more than 77,000.

Support from preservation groups was instrumental in the 1990 election, when Bob Henderson and Helen McKenna-Rahder won council seats. The 1992 election could bring a preservationist majority if either Michael Sullens or Allan Zolnekoff win seats. The result would be a city government concerned with enhancing the quality of life by placing strict limits on development, supporters say.

A third group of candidates hopes to slip into office while the two main factions grapple. Candidates include Charles Burt, Scot Connolly, Walt Dinger, Joe Marsico and Eugene Orrico.

However, the preservationists seem poised to start a City Hall revolution, which worries Woehrmann.

“It’s the first time in my 37 years here I’ve seen a special-interest group attempt to acquire control of the City Council,” Woehrmann said.

In their efforts to preserve hillsides, old buildings and houses, preservationists are willing to restrict the rights of property owners and stagnate economic growth, he said.

The election winners will join Henderson and McKenna-Rahder on the council. The two have lost many 3-to-2 votes while opposing apartment complexes and strip malls on the grounds that the projects were either low quality or did not fit into existing neighborhoods. They also spearheaded a last-minute attempt to save the historic Whittier Theatre, damaged and vacant since the 1987 Whittier earthquake. The theater was demolished last year.

Henderson and McKenna-Rahder have endorsed no candidates, but would like to work with a like-minded council member. “I’m not pursuing a third council vote to take over the town,” McKenna-Rahder said. But “we have an opportunity to put the brakes on some poor decisions.”

Members of preservation groups say their biggest battle looms ahead: the struggle over the future of 4,000 undeveloped acres of hillside stretching north and east of town.

Although most of the land is privately owned, residents for years have climbed past the No Trespassing signs to hike through a carpet of mustard flowers, sagebrush and dried grasses to explore sandstone caves and glimpse deer and bobcats.

Major landholders, including Chevron USA, are planning to build homes in the canyons.

Preservationists want the hills to become a regional wilderness park. Much of the territory is unincorporated county land, which will hinder any Whittier attempts to influence what happens. But preservationists say they need council members who will make saving the hills a top priority and take the battle to the County Board of Supervisors if necessary.

The preservation groups do not officially endorse candidates, but many members are campaigning for Sullens and Zolnekoff. Both are officeholders in the Whittier Conservancy. They were undisputed crowd favorites at a recent candidates’ forum sponsored by Friends of the Whittier Hills.

“Our hills are threatened with total destruction,” said Sullens, who owns a flooring company. “The hills must be preserved.”

Zolnekoff sounded a similar theme. Both also hope to win votes on the issue of neighborhood preservation.

“The neighborhood was there first, and any development that comes into a neighborhood should fit the neighborhood first and not the other way around,” Zolnekoff said at the recent forum.

Sullens and Zolnekoff, an accountant with Southern California Edison Co., resist being labeled no-growth candidates. They say they support quality growth. They also discuss reducing crime and gang problems and bringing new businesses into struggling commercial areas.

Their opponents, however, paint them as candidates who are unprepared for the broad range of issues facing Whittier, such as crime or the local economy. Major crimes in the city rose by 9% from 1990 to 1991. Through March 4, major crimes rose 17% over the same period last year, according to Police Department records.

The city recently closed a $2.2-million deficit by continuing a hiring freeze, cutting department budgets and postponing some improvement projects. More cuts will be necessary for next year if the economy fails to revive, City Manager Thomas G. Mauk said.

Whittier Citizens for Responsible Government, a political action group, has endorsed Woehrmann, Strong and Haendiges as best able to cope with these problems. The three also have the support of retiring councilmen Sawyer and Claxton.

“The people we’re supporting are concerned with the gang issue, with graffiti,” said John Pollara, citizen’s group chairman. “There’s a monetary crisis in terms of what (the city) can afford to do in the coming year.”

Hillside development “is a secondary issue,” he added.

Woehrmann, who owns an ambulance company, is a former Whittier planning director and former property manager for Union Oil Co. Former Whittier Mayor Strong owns a consulting firm for redevelopment projects and served on a local school board. Haendiges’ family has owned a local plumbing company for 57 years. He was chairman of the Whittier Planning Commission and president of the Chamber of Commerce.

“I have looked at all the issues,” Haendiges said. “I am proud to be part of the so-called Establishment because I think we have a good foundation in the community. If Establishment means I’m not open to change, that’s incorrect. I’m one that believes there are two sides to every issue.”

Leaders of preservation groups give Haendiges mixed marks, noting that he approved several developments they opposed. He said his mind remains open on hillside development.

Strong has focused his campaign on issues other than the hills. “In my seven years of absence from the City Council, the city has financially weakened. I’m concerned with the fiscal situation, with crime and gangs, and concerned that Whittier has developed a reputation of being anti-business,” he said in an interview.

“In the 50 years I’ve lived in Whittier, I’ve never found an enemy of the Whittier Hills,” he told a campaign forum crowd, but “if a person owns a property, they have an essential right to develop it.”

The other five candidates hope their distance from the preservation and business factions will prove an advantage.

Army veteran Scot Connolly, a biology student at Cal State Fullerton, is running on a platform similar to Sullens and Zolnekoff. Yet he specifically warns against a preservationist voting bloc on the council.

Retired engineer Eugene Orrico said he is most concerned with economic and crime issues. He said Whittier has made too little progress on both fronts and that he has the experience to make a difference.

Writer and artist Walt Dinger said he combines liberal social ideas with fiscal conservatism. He said he could moderate between the extremes of the pro-development community and preservationists. Another goal would be to get Whittier’s wealthier citizens more involved in projects for the needy.

Charles Burt, a popular hot dog vendor, sells himself as a candidate with a “workingman’s viewpoint.” He wants to bring more business downtown. At the same time, he would like to see fewer apartments in some older neighborhoods and more hillside parkland.

Longtime council critic Joe Marsico is running for the seventh time on the issues of corruption and transportation. In particular, City Manager Mauk should be fired, he said. And the city should dump the contractor that operates the city’s buses and run them with city employees. Marsico said the change would save hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.

Whittier City Council

Whittier population: 77,671

Election: April 14

On the ballot: Ten candidates for three at-large seats

INCUMBENT

Robert F. Woehrmann

Age: 64

Occupation: Owner of AME Inc., an ambulance service

Remarks: “I and the city attorney some 30-odd years ago wrote the first hillside ordinance the city had. . . . I would like to save our hills, but they are not ours, they belong to someone else. . . . The Constitution states that a property owner may develop or use a property for legitimate purposes permitted under law. If the public is going to take away the use of that property without compensation, it is a violation of the law.”

CHALLENGERS

Charles Burt

Age: 62

Occupation: Hot dog vendor

Remarks: “I’m a businessman with a workingman’s viewpoint. . . . There’s a need to be recruiting bigger companies to do business here, to provide jobs for the needy. . . . There are too many apartments. We need to rezone some areas to eliminate apartments from some areas. . . . If the city can buy a portion of the hills, they should be developed . . . into parks so that the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts and other organizations can camp close to home.”

Scot Connolly

Age: 30

Occupation: Student

Remarks: “The council has done some horrible things since the 1987 earthquake. They’ve approved just about every construction project that’s come before them. And they’ve wasted a lot of money in litigation. . . . This election could mean the end of the good-old-boy network, the same people that have been running the city for years. . . . (But) if you overload the council with (Whittier) Conservancy members, you’re in trouble. You get a new good-old-boy network.”

Walt Dinger

Age: 57

Occupation: Writer/artist

Remarks: “I live at the base of the hills and I glory in the reflection every morning. . . . But you can’t save that to which you can’t prove ownership. . . . There’s been criticism of strip malls, which are not aesthetically very pleasing, but if an entrepreneur invests money . . . that forms a tax base. We’ve got to stop browbeating the investor.” The preservationists are “too idealistic. The other side, they’re too pro-development. They want to overdevelop.” Larry Haendiges

Age: 49

Occupation: Owner of Haendiges Plumbing Co.

Remarks: “I believe the council has done a good job under a difficult situation. Where we’ve failed is that the council is not giving clear direction as far as planning is concerned and zoning. . . . If we slow down someone trying to operate or open a business, that’s hurting our general fund. . . . I would get out into the neighborhoods and see what the problems are. I would bring a community togetherness, communication. You can’t get the job done alone.”

Joe Marsico

Age: 49

Occupation: Volunteer activist

Remarks: “We have a city staff that is a bunch of con men. I swear on a stack of Bibles . . . I wanted to televise council meetings, but (the city manager) refused.” Marsico advocates that the city take over its transportation system from contractors, arguing that millions of dollars would be saved over time. “I have one message for developers: that is to develop the desert. . . . Quality of life is more important than growth.”

Eugene Orrico

Age: 69

Occupation: Retired engineer

Remarks: If the “conservancy gets more people in and they vote in a bloc, that might set the city back. . . . I don’t hike up in the hills, but if I represent the people who are concerned about the hills I’d have to represent their concern.” Development after the earthquake has been “too fast, way too fast. . . . The city is overbuilt with retail space.” Orrico said the major issue is solving an increasing gang and crime problem.

Lee Strong

Age: 68

Occupation: City planning consultant

Remarks: “In the 50 years I’ve lived in Whittier, I’ve never found an enemy of the Whittier Hills, (but) if a person owns a property, they have an essential right to develop it. . . . You cannot save all the hills. . . . In my seven years of absence from the City Council, the city has financially weakened. I’m concerned with the fiscal situation, with crime and gangs, and concerned that Whittier has developed a reputation of being anti-business.”

Michael Sullens

Age: 37

Occupation: Owner of a carpet and flooring company

Remarks: “The city has basically been run by the same group of people for the last 30 years. They shared the same basic philosophy, and that philosophy worked for a long time, the post-World War II philosophy of build, build, build. . . . Each individual project needs to be looked at on the basis of what this project is doing for Whittier. . . . The hills are an important asset and once they’re developed, they’re gone.”

Allan Zolnekoff

Age: 38

Occupation: Accountant/planner with Southern California Edison Co. Remarks: “Some of my opponents feel development in the hills is inevitable. I disagree. . . . Any development in the hills affects Whittier’s water lines, sewer lines, school districts, traffic, smog and congestion. . . . I see my job in some ways as the traffic cop that says no when an existing neighborhood is potentially ruined by a proposed development. . . . Whittier people have not had a responsive government.”