Central Los Angeles : Inquiry Sought Into Recall Campaign

The mayor and police chief of Bell Gardens announced Monday morning that they have asked the district attorney’s office for a criminal investigation into allegations of forgery by campaign workers of a recently defeated recall effort.

The recall campaign targeted Mayor Maria Chacon and Councilman Ramiro Morales, who themselves led a successful recall in 1991 of four white City Council members accused of racism against Latinos.

Police Chief Fredrick Freeman said he received a letter from the Committee to Recall Chacon/Morales last week accusing three of the committee’s own campaign workers of forging signatures.

Recall campaign manager Laird Halverson acknowledged that there had been forgeries.

Chacon has also asked the Fair Political Practices Commission to investigate the campaign, she said. State law requires any political group that raises $1,000 or more to file a statement of organization, city officials said, but the committee never filed with the city clerk’s office.

City officials say they believe that committee members had to have spent more than $1,000 on their recall efforts, listing as evidence that the committee had a campaign office, letterhead for its stationery and at least 10 different flyers that it distributed to Bell Gardens residents.