Blaszcak Vote Stirs Passions in San Gabriel

SAN GABRIEL —  Four years ago, Frank Blaszcak was a low-profile county employee who had just arrived in this small city in the western San Gabriel Valley.

Now the 43-year-old public affairs officer, who was elected to the City Council last year, is the focus of a political brouhaha that has swept up virtually every political and civic leader in the city.

A Blaszcak recall election next week represents the culmination of a lengthy battle of wills, during which the controversial councilman initiated a libel action against 11 prominent residents, dodged salvo after salvo of allegations and broke with several of his colleagues.

“I’ve been campaigning for 18 months now,” said Blaszcak, who was elected to the council as part of a three-man slow-growth slate in April, 1988.

The councilman’s opponents have charged, among other things, that he once dealt drugs to a Santa Ana police officer, that he has played fast and loose with the city budget, that he has single-handedly created a morale problem among city staff and that he “mooned” a constituent during a council meeting--all of which Blaszcak has vehemently denied.

A chunky man with paintbrush eyebrows and an often-pained look in his eyes (he really is in pain sometimes, having injured his back last year), Blaszcak’s demeanor suggests weariness these days. “I’m fighting for my council seat because government work has paid my bills for many years,” said Blaszcak, who is on disability leave from his job as a public information officer for the County Sanitation Districts.

“Sometimes, I feel inclined to step out of government and have a little more fun,” he continued. “I’ll tell you honestly--government is not fun.”

Blaszcak describes the issues in the recall election, which will be held May 23, in broadly delineated terms of “good government” versus special interests, with himself as a champion of the reformist sentiment that brought him to office last year.

In a series of kaffeeklatsches in supporters’ homes, the councilman has described his efforts to force the city bureaucracy to accept the agenda of open government and growth restraints on which he ran last year. Elected with the support of the Citizens for Responsible Development, the slow-growth group that has dominated city politics for almost two years, Blaszcak contends that developers and real estate interests are after his scalp.

“They think that, if they can get me out of office, they’ll break the back of the CFRD planned growth movement,” he told a rapt audience of two dozen at the home of Planning Commissioner Norman Stabech two weeks ago.

Even Split Conceded

Some of Blaszcak’s colleagues on the council concede that there is frequently an even split in their ranks, with two CFRD-supported members (the “gruesome twosome,” according to one of their critics) facing off against two anti-CFRD members, with James Castaneda serving as a swing vote.

But there is some disagreement as to whether the split reflects philosophical differences or personality clashes.

“Look back at the council program (in the past year),” said Castaneda, who was also elected with CFRD support but has distanced himself somewhat from the group. “I think the majority of the big votes have gone 5 to 0.”

He cited, for example, last fall’s council decision to extend a moratorium on development while a new General Plan is being drawn up and a recent sign ordinance dictating that 50% of commercial signs be in English (on which the vote was actually 4 to 1). The council is in unanimous agreement that wide-open development of multiunit housing projects should be restrained, Castaneda said.

“The rest is a personality thing between groups,” said Castaneda, who added that, true to his swing-vote role, he will not vote in the recall election.

‘Eroded the Process’

But Mayor John Tapp, one of Blaszcak’s most scathing critics who was formerly a CFRD ally, says his council colleague should be replaced with a less disruptive individual. “He has eroded the process of government,” Tapp said. “That affects how the city is run, what people think of our city.”

The case against Blaszcak essentially comes down to the following charges:

* He misused city funds by purchasing a portable telephone for $2,100. Blaszcak says he bought the telephone to avoid using his county office telephone for San Gabriel business, but he bowed to pressure last summer and gave it up. The furor touched off by the purchase translated into many signatures for recall, organizers of the petition campaign said. “People would ask, ‘Is that the guy with the telephone in his car?’ ” said one. “That’s all they had to know.”

* He was once charged with selling drugs to a police officer while he was public information officer for the city of Santa Ana. Blaszcak’s opponents pass out copies of a 1979 clipping from the Orange County Register reporting Blaszcak’s resignation from the Santa Ana job after allegations from the officer. This prompted Blaszcak’s lawsuit two months ago. Pointing out that charges were never brought by the district attorney because of lack of evidence, Blaszcak’s attorney, Melvin Belli, has compared the councilman to Jimmy Stewart in “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” describing Blaszcak as a reformer beset by the corrupt.

* He is an arrogant public official who has harassed city employees, insulted residents and created a morale problem among city workers. Tapp singles out Blaszcak’s efforts to have City Administrator Robert Clute fired. “That has eroded confidence that there will be continuity in city government,” the mayor said. Blaszcak contends that Clute, a fixture in the city for 15 years, has violated council policies. “His administrative practices are at best weak,” Blaszcak said.

* He wants to turn the city’s Police and Fire departments over to the county. Blaszcak denies it, saying the assertion stemmed from a conversation with Clute in which he discussed incorporating the Fire Department into the county system as one of many options that should be presented to the voters.

Host of Other Charges

There is a host of other charges against the councilman, broadcast in scattershot fashion by members of the Committee to Recall Frank Blaszcak. These include everything from the fact that he once edited a college magazine called “Iconoclast” (“Meaning something that destroys religious beliefs or institutions,” sniffed Blaszcak critic Councilman Sabino Cici) to charges that he “mooned” a member of the audience at a council meeting (“I was bending over to pick something up,” Blaszcak says).

Cici portrays his colleague as a newcomer with little record of service to the city, who doesn’t even own property in the city (he lives in his mother-in-law’s house). “He can leave at any time,” contended Cici. “He has no roots in the city.”

But the Friends of Frank Blaszcak, who are distributing green-and-black lawn signs urging a “no” vote on the recall, have responded with some charges of their own. Blaszcak and supporters charge, for example, that those who are running the recall campaign represent developers, who have a special interest in getting rid of Blaszcak. They cite particularly Fred Paine, a former planning commissioner whose company, FJP Enterprises, has built condominiums and single-family homes in the city.

Paine and his wife, Suzanne, a former Chamber of Commerce president, have been active in the recall campaign, lending their names to it and making financial donations.

Cici said Paine is a minor independent developer, who has built primarily single-famly homes. “There’s only one developer involved in this election: Gary Meredith,” Cici said. Meredith, one of the founders of CFRD, is now a spokesman for the company that is developing the former Edwards Drive-In Theater on Valley Boulevard as a shopping center. He is also actively supporting Blaszcak’s cause.

Rhetoric Has Quieted

Since Blaszcak initiated his lawsuit against 11 individuals, including a former mayor and a former planning commissioner, as well as Cici and the Paines, the rhetoric has quieted. “That put a stop to some of the more outrageous charges,” Blaszcak said.

But the targets of the suit allege that it is “an attempt to muzzle community support for (Blaszcak’s) removal,” as Civil Service Commissioner Stuart Riddle, one of the defendants, put it.

Blaszcak, who has endorsements from the Police Officers Assn. and the Firemen’s Assn., has issued an open challenge to debate one of his opponents in a public forum, but none has come forward.

“I’m running into an awful lot of people at these meetings,” Blaszcak told his kaffeeklatsch audience, “who say: ‘Frank, I signed the recall petition but I’m not voting for it. Not after meeting you.’ It’s the debate. They say they want all the facts exposed, then what do they do? Refuse to debate me.”

Two Questions for Voters

The election will ask voters two questions: whether Blaszcak should be recalled and, if so, whether his replacement should be selected by appointment or in another special election.

Observers from both sides acknowledge that in a special election such as this one, the side with the most effective get-out-the-vote machinery usually wins. Blaszcak is counting on CFRD volunteers, who helped to sweep him into office, to carry the day for him.

But recall advocates say they can match CFRD’s fire power. “We have more people out there than they do,” said Cici.

Meanwhile, some residents wait impatiently for city business to become the council’s top priority again. “We’re just chewing ourselves up with personality conflicts and character assassinations,” said Councilman Ted Anderson, a Blaszcak defender, “rather than dealing with the substantive issues in town.”