The winners of two Hawthorne City Council seats up for grabs Nov. 3 will face an uphill battle as City Hall works to rebuild trust with the public after two years of poor fiscal management.
Incumbents Olivia Valentine and Nilo Michelin are both seeking new four-year terms, but six challengers are hoping to dislodge them. They are City Treasurer L. David Patterson, bookkeeper and homeowners association President Katrina Manning, Realtor and activist Amie Shepard, businessman Haidar Awad, activist Frances Stiglich and Osvaldo Ramirez, a student.
The city is still reeling from the revelation in June that former City Manager Michael Goodson deceived city leaders about the budget’s financial solvency for more than a year. He reported that finances were doing well when, in reality, he depleted the city’s reserve savings fund by more than half and left the city with a deficit of more than $6 million. City employees are now enduring salary cuts and spending reductions while trying to maintain essential resident services.
The incumbents
In the past four years, Valentine and Michelin have largely agreed on policy issues, except on one major point: large spending increases in the 2014-15 fiscal year budget that worsened the existing financial climate.
“I’m the watchdog,” Michelin said. “I voted against the budget last time. I was there to sound the warnings and make tough decisions when the budget came out. I still have a lot of unfinished business from my first term. It wasn’t an easy term.”
In hindsight, Valentine said her decision to support spending increases, also backed by Mayor Chris Brown and Councilwoman Angie English, was a mistake. But Valentine said she did so because she trusted her colleagues and Goodson, whom she joined with Michelin and Councilman Alex Vargas to fire in May.
Valentine, an attorney, helped put on the city’s first Taste of Hawthorne food and entertainment event at the airport two years ago. She also worked with Phantom Galleries L.A. to bring art showings to vacant storefronts, and introduced an ordinance to allow live-work units in industrial areas to encourage development. She also helped implement a policy requiring shopping centers to prepare security plans.
She wants to implement a city-backed business incubator program to assist new start-up companies.
“We don’t have enough resources and we need good-paying jobs, but I don’t want Hawthorne to lose its small-town flavor,” Valentine said.
If elected to a second term, Valentine said she would work to hire a qualified permanent city manager to replace interim City Manager Arnie Shadbehr.
“When we do pick a permanent city manager, it needs to be a transparent process that the people have confidence in,” Valentine said. “The honesty of staff is critical to the city. Had (Goodson) been answering (my questions) truthfully, we would not be in this mess.”
Michelin, a history teacher and former prosecutor, served on the Hawthorne school board for a dozen years and was first elected to the City Council in 2011. Like Valentine, he supports hiring an executive search firm to find qualified candidates to be city manager. However, he voted for Goodson’s appointment to the position in 2012 while Valentine opposed it, believing he lacked qualifications.
In the past two years, Michelin often has been on the City Council minority with Councilman Alex Vargas, arguing for greater transparency in a city that became increasingly secretive about its spending last year. Brown spent freely, exceeding allowable travel expenses as he attended conferences around the country that English occasionally joined. They consistently opposed Michelin and Vargas’ push for more transparency, while Valentine has voted on both sides.
“I’m willing to make the tough decisions,” Michelin said. “I bring my experience on the City Council and school board. I’m a budget hawk.”
If re-elected, he said he would prioritize plans to slow traffic on major thoroughfares, add bike lanes, and increase the walkability of shopping areas. He also supports streamlining the city’s business permitting process to attract much-needed new business to a town struggling with high vacancy rates.
The challengers
Katrina Manning is a Realtor, bookkeeper and president of the Holly Park Homeowners Association. She began serving on city commissions in 2011, and has initiated a summertime Movies in the Park program.
She has a bachelor’s degree in business administration and is working on a master’s degree in public administration. If elected, she said she would implement potluck town hall meetings to highlight local businesses, and pressure developers with large vacant properties to make progress.
Her most pressing priority, she said, is improving public safety — particularly at parks, where gang shootings often are a problem. She said her accounting background would enable her to help her tackle the city’s budget issues.
“We’re growing,” Manning said. “We used to be an aerospace (industry) hub, and we have so much potential to bring the city back to that, with good-paying jobs.”
L. David Patterson, a financial adviser with degrees in business administration and organizational psychology, was elected to the city treasurer’s position in 2013. As treasurer, he said he was able to slightly increase the city’s return on its investments but he wants to be involved in crafting policy.
“I have the business experience to pursue economic development and the finance experience to understand how our budget works,” Patterson said, adding that he would reform the city’s finance department to have more checks and balances. “No one on the council has taken the steps to fix structural flaws (in city organization) because nobody on the council has an understanding of those topics.
“I speak the language of business and meet with businesses on a regular basis,” he said. “I can have a better conversation with them than other candidates.”
Frances Stiglich, a perennial candidate, is an activist in her 90s who attends nearly every City Council meeting. She has largely played the role of critic, speaking often at meetings to criticize city leaders.
“I keep an eye on Hawthorne politicians,” Stiglich said. “They squabble and I don’t like all the squabbling. They don’t want me in there. I guess I’m too honest. I watch my neighborhood real close and, if I see something, I call code enforcement. I love our policemen.”
Osvaldo Ramirez is listed as a student on his election nomination documents, but he has not campaigned, attended forums, or responded to interview requests.
Amie Shepard, a Realtor, became involved in city politics when Brown’s ballooning travel and expense budget — along with the city’s struggles with financial solvency — was reported in the Daily Breeze. If elected, she said she would save money by outsourcing the City Attorney’s Office and would work to redistribute Police Department resources.
“I’m a fresh face with business experience,” Shepard said. “And I’m willing to stand up and yell at the police chief.”
Shepard said she believes police patrols are unfairly concentrated in nicer parts of town.
“I hate to think that people live here just because it’s what they can afford,” Shepard said. “We’re strategically placed (by airports, freeways and ports) and have so much potential. We need to work to reduce loitering and vacancy in multifamily high-density housing.”
Haidar Awad, vice president of his family’s business, Finance Auto Sales, said he would work to impose a “vacancy tax” on those property owners with empty storefronts. He also would independently review City Hall leadership, he said, to make sure things are well run in the same way he helped restructure marketing and sales at his company.
Awad’s family moved to Hawthorne from Lebanon and built Finance Auto Sales into a successful business. The business, at 11604 Prairie Ave., just began construction on a complete remodel.
“As a business owner, I have a vested interest in seeing the city move on,” Awad said. “It’s always good to give back to the city that gave us so much.”
