6% Utility Tax, Service Levels Dominate Race

LA HABRA — The debates about how best to battle gangs and graffiti--so popular with local politicians of the past--have been shoved aside by the six candidates who are seeking election to three City Council seats in November.

The candidates--incumbents Juan M. Garcia and Mayor Steven C. Anderson, former Mayor John C. Holmberg, college student Jephthah Holley, real estate agent Merciline La Porte, and financial economist Jonathan H. Wiegman--are focusing on city services and the 6% utility tax.

The tax has raised $3.7 million, or nearly 30% of La Habra’s general fund budget for the past four years. Unless money can be raised another way, Anderson, Garcia, Holmberg and Holley stand by it.

If the tax were removed today, they said, drastic cuts would have to be made in police, fire and other crucial emergency services. However, the four candidates said they are thinking of other ways to raise money.

Redevelopment projects that beautify rundown areas may be the key, said Holmberg, 39, owner of County Records Research, a firm that publishes information on investment properties. He served on the City Council from 1980 to 1992.

“I would like to try to reduce the tax, hopefully by at least 1%, through economic growth,” he said, adding that the city can get new businesses in La Habra with attractive redevelopment plans.

La Porte has an opposite view. The 67-year-old grandmother favors abolishing the Redevelopment Agency because “I feel it is state intervention controlling local government,” she said.

“As nutty as it may seem, it’s not nutty. It makes total good sense to beautify the city with our own money and not through government grants and entitlements,” said La Porte, who works part-time for a Whittier real estate agency.

La Porte and Wiegman both promise to vote to repeal the tax if they are elected.

“If it cannot be repealed through a majority vote, then I would call for a referendum,” said Wiegman 32, a self-employed financial economist who buys and sells stocks. La Porte said she would do the same.

Whether the tax gets repealed or not, Wiegman said that, if elected, he will not vote to expand any city service and would reject any future pay raises for employees.

However, he said, he will try to expand the number of hours the public library is open and would donate half his monthly City Council stipend for the cause and try to recruit volunteers to work there.

Holley, a 20-year-old student at Rio Hondo College in Whittier, said he would suggest a logic class be introduced into the local school curriculum in an effort to “better prepare future graduates.”

He supports the utility tax, warning that if “police, fire and paramedic services are cut, then response times to emergencies would get longer.”

Anderson and Garcia say that over the last four years, they have voted to increase the number of police officers, approved sales tax-generating redevelopment projects, brought back the city’s annual Fourth of July celebration and forged a partnership with the La Habra Chamber of Commerce.

“We want to have a community we can be proud of,” said Garcia, 44, who has been pushing to upgrade railroad crossings and improve parks and recreation facilities.

Anderson, 44, agreed, saying he wants to continue making “La Habra a better place for the citizens and the youth of our community.”

La Porte and Wiegman said they support turning the city manager’s job, now an appointed position, into an elected post. The other candidates oppose such a move, saying it could expose the city to great liability.

“Look at the bankruptcy of Orange County,” Anderson said. “The county’s treasury was run by an elected official.”

The city manager is not a policy maker and it would be “insane” to elect someone for the job because it requires “expertise in city budgets, personnel, redevelopment, etcetera,” Holmberg said. “People like that are not on every street block.”

That kind of attitude, La Porte countered, prompts her belief that the city has “totalitarian tendencies.”

The other council candidates disagree on that point, but none of the candidates object to La Porte’s proposal to turn the mayor’s position into an elective post.

The mayor is now chosen by the City Council each year.

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Running in La Habra

Six candidates, including two incumbents, are seeking three City Council seats at stake in La Habra. A quick look at the candidates:

Steven C. Anderson

Age: 44

Occupation: Engineering supervisor for Anaheim’s water department

Background: Incumbent since 1992; currently serving as mayor; coaches and manages several youth sports leagues; helped organize a baseball league for disabled youths; served as a member of the Orange County Bankruptcy Task Force; resident of La Habra for 25 years

Major issues: Beautify city streets; improve parks; increase youth programs; maintain size of police and fire departments

Juan M. Garcia

Age: 44

Occupation: Project coordinator at Chevron Petroleum Technology Co., La Habra

Background: Incumbent, appointed to City Council in 1991 and elected in 1992; served as mayor in 1995; worked as a volunteer in local schools; reestablished city’s Fourth of July celebration; resident of La Habra for 39 years

Major issues: Upgrade railroad crossings; resurface city streets; improve parks and recreation facilities; keep residents informed; maintain number of emergency personnel

Jephthah Holley

Age: 20

Occupation: Student at Rio Hondo College, Whittier

Background: Graduated from Whittier Christian High School, 1994; La Habra resident for eight years

Major issues: Start a class to teach logic in local schools; expand local cable TV operation to create new channels and better service; cut city expenditures; bring business to the city

John C. Holmberg

Age: 39

Occupation: Owner of County Records Research, Santa Ana

Background: Elected to City Council in 1980, reelected in 1984 and 1988; served as mayor in 1984, 1988 and 1991; currently serves as Chamber of Commerce’s “Shop La Habra” campaign and president-elect of the La Habra Boys and Girls Club; La Habra resident for 35 years

Major issues: Improve economic development through redevelopment projects; keep police and fire services as city’s top priority in annual budget

Merciline La Porte

Age: 67

Occupation: Realtor in Whittier

Background: Member of Our Lady of Guadalupe Church and National Assn. of Realtors; holds cosmetology license and bartender’s certificate; La Habra resident for 30 years

Major issues: Repeal 4-year-old utility tax; reduce wages of city employees; reduce and eventually eliminate youth programs and other services; abolish redevelopment agency; make city manager’s job an elected post

Jonathan H. Wiegman

Age: 32

Occupation: Self-employed financial economist

Background: Buys and sells stocks and stock options. Honorably discharged from U.S. Army and Marine Corp Reserves; served as Army and Marine sergeant; master’s degree in business economics from Cal State Fullerton; La Habra resident for 22 years

Major issues: Repeal utility tax; extend library hours by recruiting work volunteers; cut Police Department’s DARE (Drug Awareness Resistance Education) program; stop any expansion of city programs; refuse future pay raises for city employees

Source: Individual candidates; Researched by MIMI KO CRUZ / For The Times