City Leaders’ Changes Jar San Fernando

SAN FERNANDO — In the days before the City Council election in March, candidate Silverio Robledo told voters that for the city to prosper, the buck must stop here.

The 33-year-old engineer, banker and UCLA business school graduate campaigned with talk of a shopper’s paradise, with thriving bookstores, coffee shops, stores and restaurants. The idea is simple, he said, though not easy to bring about: Draw new customers to the 2.5-square mile municipality, thereby generating new jobs and merchant profits.

For this working-class, mostly Latino city to compete with nearby shopping meccas such as the Northridge Fashion Center, Robledo promised as a first step to streamline City Hall, making it more friendly to business and more responsive to residents.

So far, it’s been more than just talk.

The election that drew the lowest voter turnout in years--1,922 of the city’s 6,730 registered voters cast ballots--may someday be seen as one of the city’s most significant.

In the four months since the election, Robledo and Jose Hernandez, who won the other open seat, have joined Mayor Raul Godinez II to form a council majority that has fired the city attorney, accepted the resignation of the city administrator, merged the personnel and finance departments and reshuffled the Police Department.

These changes represent radical moves in San Fernando, where longtime residents call one another by first name and where local government has for years operated in predictable fashion.

Robledo and Hernandez, a Chicano Studies professor at Cal State Northridge, have become welcome allies of Mayor Godinez, who in the second year of a four-year term had been frustrated by colleagues who did not share his vision.

“In the past, the council had more of a caretaker approach to government,” Godinez said. “I think that we need to reinvent ourselves or we will lose whatever economic drawing power we have now.” It is too soon to tell whether their efforts will pay off for the city’s nearly 23,000 residents. But there is no doubt the three council members have drawn attention, as well as criticism.

The trio’s latest legislative victory was a 3-2 vote last week merging two city departments and eliminating the job of personnel director.

Two weeks ago, City Administrator Mary Strenn resigned from her $101,000-per-year job, allegedly after being pressured by the council majority. In April, City Atty. Michael Estrada was fired.

“For me, this is more of a power play than it is about serving the city better,” said City Councilwoman Joanne Baltierrez, who has opposed the changes.

“It’s not about consensus building, it’s about them saying, ‘We’ve got power and we are going to do what we want,’ ” she said. “Morale right now in City Hall is very low.”

Doude Wysbeek, an eight-year council member who runs an electrical motor repair business, says the new council majority is intent on getting its way, no matter the price.

Robledo maintains that their actions are not a power grab, that they were voted into office.

Godinez, Hernandez and Robledo deny having abused their newfound political clout. Streamlining City Hall, they argue, is crucial for improving San Fernando’s economy.

Whatever their intentions, “I have never seen the city so divided in my 45 years here,” said Roberta Philpy, a longtime resident.

Founded in 1874 and incorporated in 1911, San Fernando has always maintained a strong independent spirit. Unlike other Valley communities that succumbed to annexation by Los Angeles after the Los Angeles Aqueduct was completed in 1913, San Fernando, with its own supply of well water, resisted the lure of joining its larger neighbor.

San Fernando’s Latino population has grown to 85%, with a Latino majority first elected to the five-member council in 1986. The last three mayors have been Latinos.

And despite some big-city problems with gangs and graffiti, city leaders continue to promote San Fernando as a middle-class oasis among the blue-collar neighborhoods of the northeast San Fernando Valley.

That image is reinforced by neighborhoods of modest but well-kept single family homes, well-used public parks and a tree-lined outdoor shopping mall that is anchored by the city’s largest retailer, JCPenney. Felony arrests are down 22% so far this year from the same period in 1996, say police. Overall crime has fallen 16%.

Sales tax revenues also show improvement. After reaching a plateau during the recession of the early 1990s, revenues rose 12% in 1996 over the previous year, to $4,460,366. City finance officials predict that number will go up again this year.

Officials tout the city’s relatively small bureaucracy, and business-friendly policies in their efforts to draw new business. In addition, the city’s permitting process has been streamlined.

Although San Fernando’s operating budget is about the same as last year, the city has added two new patrol officers, three part-time jailers/dispatchers, a recreational leader at Las Palmas Park, three part-time crossing guards and a full-time building inspector.

“If there is anyone who is trying to ferret out some kind of political agenda, it is simple,” Godinez said. “We are trying to deliver better services to the city of San Fernando.”

Saul Gomez, who was assigned to the new post of city services manager after his old job in city administration was eliminated, said the city’s focus on business actually started soon after the 1994 Northridge earthquake.

But it has not been until the last year or so, Gomez said, that San Fernando has successfully drawn large businesses such as Manhattan Bagel, which will soon open a distribution plant, and Apria Health Care, which recently moved its headquarters here.

One local developer is considering a $3-million proposal to build a two-story public library downtown that would include a bookstore, magazine stand, food court and clock tower. City officials hope a local farmers market, slated to open next month, will attract new shoppers downtown on weekends.

Bruce Cohen, president of the San Fernando Chamber of Commerce, is careful not to take sides, but said he is willing to give the new council a chance.

“I’m not privy to what they’re thinking, so I will assume that they are giving it their best shot to move the city forward,” he said.

But Baltierrez warns that the council’s job cuts could turn out to do more harm than good.

“I don’t have a problem with change. I have a problem with individuals being let go and decisions being made without the full participation of the city’s entire elected government,” she said. “We just don’t have enough experienced staff in place now to run the city effectively.”

Godinez, while convinced the council’s actions will benefit the city in the long run, acknowledged the stress of changing the status quo.

“I’m looking forward to moving on to other issues,” he said.