Freebies for residents pile up before South Gate recall election

LOS ANGELES (AP) A recall election of the majority of the City Council and the treasurer is set for Tuesday in heavily Hispanic South Gate, and recent politicking reminds some residents of old-style politics in their Mexican hometowns.

The three-member City Council majority offered residents free trash service last month, a television set was raffled off to newly registered voters, more than 400 low-income families got $90-per-month rent subsidies for a year and the city even gave a free house to one lucky resident.

It's reminiscent of the way politics was long conducted in Mexico, where politicians handed out sombreros, sarapes and food during election season.

``It's like I never left Mexico,'' resident Julia Barraza told the Los Angeles Times.

Facing recall votes are the city's most powerful politician, Treasurer Albert Robles, and his City Council allies: Mayor Xochilt Ruvalcaba, Vice Mayor Raul Moriel and Councilwoman Maria Benavides.

Robles, Ruvalcaba, Moriel and Benavides deny charges that the giveaways are politically motivated. Ruvalcaba said the house raffle was to draw national attention to the shortage of affordable housing.

Supporters of the four say they've improved the sewer system and provided a community resource center and tutors for children.

``They have done good things for the community. They aren't corrupt,'' said Eric Sandoval, a city employee.

Pork-barrel politics aren't unique to South Gate, a working-class, 92 percent Latino city of 98,000 just south of Los Angeles. But critics and outside observers say it offers an extreme example.

``It's more blatant, more coarse than a lot of the other sorts of either patronage or pork barrel politics that we see,'' said David Ayon, a political analyst at Loyola Marymount University. ``It more directly approximates buying votes from people. It used to be more common in the old (American) urban machines, and certainly has been standard fare in Mexico until very recently.''

The recall is led by the city's two police unions, and proponents cite a long list of concerns. In the last two years the council majority tripled their salaries and stripped the elected city clerk of most of her duties. They have a convicted embezzler working as their litigation specialist.

The city also has spent more than $1 million defending Robles, who stood trial last month on charges of threatening to kill four people, including two state legislators. His jury deadlocked and the judge dismissed the charges.

Many of the city-funded giveaways began during Robles' trial, culminating with this month's house raffle on the park-like grounds of City Hall, with the recall targets playing host.

Asked by the master of ceremonies if the city would give away another house in the future, Ruvalcaba responded, ``If God permits me, gives me life and I'm re-elected, we'll do this again.''

In recent days the City Council majority has also passed a series of controversial measures benefiting politically connected businessmen.

They approved an $863,000 road-improvement contract for an engineering firm whose president, Hector Castillo, is the subject of an investigation by the Los Angeles County District Attorney's public integrity unit. Residents have raised questions about the legality of a telemarketing operation Castillo runs, saying he has used the taxpayer-funded phone bank to campaign against the recall.

Castillo was recently subpoenaed by the county grand jury, but his attorney, Mark Werksman, said he has been deemed guilty without being charged with a crime.

``To make a blanket condemnation of Hector Castillo and render him ineligible for future city contracts is ridiculous,'' Werksman said.

The council majority also awarded $2.4 million in federal low-interest loans to Robles' former business partner, George Garrido, to help him buy an 11-acre city property and machinery for the recycling plant planned for the site.

Critics say city officials provided no information on how many jobs or how much tax revenue would be created by the plant.

When asked at a public forum Thursday night to elaborate, Ruvalcaba said only: ``It's a good deal for the community.'' She referred the question to City Attorney Salvador Alva, who did not answer.

Garrido, who co-owned a trucking company with Robles, was not available for comment to the Los Angeles Times, and The Associated Press could not find a telephone listing for him Sunday. Robles has said he has no current business relationship with Garrido.

(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)