Disgust Leads 2 Students to Give Council Races the Old College Try

For years, all they read in the newspapers or heard on television about their hometown of Bell Gardens were stories of scandals and political feuds.

They were embarrassed to read about the city councilwoman who was arrested on suspicion of disrupting a council meeting and disgusted to learn that council members had given themselves a huge raise despite the low income of many residents.

So Giovanni Torres and Fabiola Barcena decided to run in this coming Tuesday’s recall election, hoping to end the bickering and controversies.

Both are college students with almost no money for campaign material. But they don’t let that bother them.

Torres, 24, and Barcena, 21, who attend Cerritos College in Norwalk, believe that many voters are just as fed up with Bell Gardens’ image as they are and want to see fresh faces in City Hall.

Armed with hand-painted campaign signs and a truckload of enthusiasm, the two students hope to spark a youth movement in their mainly working-class Latino community of about 44,700 residents nestled along the Long Beach Freeway in southeast Los Angeles County.

“We are going for substance, because we can’t afford all those flashy mailers,” Torres said with a confident grin.

The students are relying on a group of equally enthusiastic Bell Gardens youngsters known as Empowered Youth to distribute fliers and post campaigns signs. A recent campaign rally at Bell Gardens High School attracted about 50 teenagers and adults.

Still, Torres and Barcena are longshots, and they know it. Seven other candidates are vying for the seats of three incumbents who are facing a recall. The part-time post pays nearly $32,000 a year.

Torres and Barcena are willing to gamble for a winning cause. After all, Bell Gardens is the home of the Bicycle Club casino, one of the largest card clubs in the state.

“We don’t want the positions or the money,” Barcena said. “We want to get the community involved.”

They already have learned that politics can be dirty. Someone has removed many of the signs they posted throughout the city.

And many people do not take them seriously. Torres said he has tried to meet with several city department heads to discuss city problems but has been relegated to lower-level bureaucrats.

The success rate of young candidates in Los Angeles County is not high. Still, Rick Taylor, a seasoned political consultant who is managing the runoff campaign of Alex Padilla, a 26-year-old Los Angeles City Council candidate, said young hopefuls can win against older, better financed candidates if they put in long hours walking door to door.

He noted that Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky was 26 when he was first elected to the Los Angeles City Council.

“If they are really doing the work, they can be successful,” Taylor said.

Political fighting has become ingrained in the fabric of Bell Gardens.

The feuding usually boils down to this: Council members Maria Chacon and Ramiro Morales accuse Mayor Joaquin Penilla and Councilmen David Torres and Salvador Rios of wasting the city’s limited resources.

Chacon cites a vote by the council majority two years ago to increase council members’ salaries from about $10,000 to nearly $32,000 a year. That’s 20% higher than Bell Gardens’ median family income.

Torres has defended the increase, saying council members put in at least eight hours a day.

Chacon and her allies also have accused Rios of using city funds to pay for his 1997 honeymoon in San Diego. City officials say that Rios has since returned the money and that a district attorney’s investigation cleared him of wrongdoing.

Torres, Penilla and Rios accuse Chacon and Morales of trying to run the city like their own little fiefdom. They say Chacon throws a fit when she can’t get her way. Chacon insists that she is simply trying to expose the misdeeds of the council majority.

At a council meeting in August, Chacon and her husband, Jesse, were arrested on suspicion of disturbing the peace after a shouting match with Police Chief Fredrick Freeman. The district attorney’s office declined to file charges.

Chacon and her supporters collected nearly 10,000 signatures to prompt the recall election Tuesday of Penilla, Torres and Rios.

Voters will decide whether to replace the three councilmen and, on the same ballot, choose their replacements. Torres is vying for Rios’ seat and Barcena is running for Penilla’s post.

Bell Gardens’ current council members praise the students for showing an interest in city politics. But they say the two youngsters are too green to do any good in City Hall.

“Are they strong enough to carry the responsibility of a city? I don’t think so,” Chacon said.

Penilla said he understands the frustration of the students, adding that he too is frustrated. But he blames Chacon and Morales for City Hall’s problems.

If elected, Torres and Barcena said, they will vote to repeal the council’s pay raise and work to create after-school programs for teenagers. They also want to start a community policing program in Bell Gardens, similar to the efforts called for in Los Angeles by the Christopher Commission after the police beating of motorist Rodney King.

When not in college, Torres is a part-time security officer at Bell Gardens High, which he and Barcena attended. Barcena works as an office clerk for the U.S. Department of Commerce. Both live with their parents.

Torres plans to attend attend Cal State Dominguez Hills in the fall to study education. Barcena plans to attend Cal State Fullerton in the fall to study Spanish. Both say they are confident that they can handle the council’s responsibilities.

“We are young, but we have the energy and the desire to make a change,” Barcena said.