The addition of two new faces to the San Fernando City Council has launched a string of disagreements about future projects, rumors of testy council meetings and accusations of back-room deals that favor one local developer over another. Three top city officials have left office since Councilwoman Maribel De La Torre, sister of Mayor Cindy Montanez, and Councilwoman Beverly Di Tomaso were elected in March. The change has created a division on the council, with Montanez, De La Torre and three-term councilman Jose Hernandez in one camp, and Councilman Richard Ramos and Di Tomaso in another. Ramos and Di Tomaso say the majority bloc is pressuring officials out of office in order to green-light projects for San Fernando-based Pueblo Construction Inc. and control bids on future developments, which they think should include a better mix of big-box projects and small retailers. They also assert that Pueblo is getting preferential treatment on planned developments because of political contributions the company made to De La Torre’s campaign, although Pueblo has provided financial support to all five council members in the past. And on top of all the charges thrown back and forth, Ramos and Montanez are both planning a run for the same state Assembly seat in 2002 and, for all intents and purposes, the election campaign has already started. Since election of the new council members in March, Police Chief Dominick Rivetti has taken a new post with the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office and both City Administrator John Ornelas and Economic Development Manager Sarah Magana-Withers have resigned. The council met in closed session Aug. 22 and agreed to negotiate a contract with someone they have not yet publicly identified as a replacement for Ornelas. At a council meeting scheduled for Sept. 4, they will vote on whether to approve the contract. Ramos, in his second term, and Di Tomaso claim Montanez, De La Torre and Hernandez flexed their political muscle to force the resignations. They say they fear Pueblo is threatening to dominate development in the city and is receiving council support in that effort in exchange for political contributions the company made to De La Torre’s campaign. But Montanez and others say this is a case of sour grapes left over from previous council disagreements, and nothing more than a sign of the city’s growing pains. She said Ornelas, who could not be reached for comment, and the other two employees left of their own free will. “It’s my job here to make sure the bidding process is fair and open to anyone who wants to bring us their ideas,” said Montanez. “Regardless of the appearance of a division among the council, I believe that we all want the same things for the city.” Well, not exactly. In 1999, the council scrapped plans for a theater-retail complex on San Fernando Road that included land owned by the city and Pueblo, because of disagreements over its size and scope. Some council members at the time favored Pueblo’s plans for a smaller complex with a theater featuring Spanish-language movies. The then-majority, including Ramos, is said to have pushed for a multiplex cinema and major department store proposed by San Fernando-based Grapevine Development, which at the time was working with Burbank-based VG Development. Grapevine was awarded an exclusive on the property, but later backed out. But instead of awarding the contract to Pueblo, which owns part of the property, the council voted to solicit new bids, essentially shelving the project. Pueblo has since attracted FAMSA, Inc., a Mexico-based furniture retailer, to its own property and Pueblo co-founder Severyn Aszkenazy said he’s no longer interested in a theater complex on his property. “FAMSA is doing very well and I’m not looking to revive that project,” he said. Nevertheless, Pueblo either owns or is in escrow on several properties in San Fernando and, Ramos and Di Tomaso say, appears to be pulling all the strings in town because of its close ties to Montanez and her sister. “I’m concerned as a teacher and a council member that we aren’t favoring one company over others,” said Ramos. “Don’t get me wrong, my father is a very good friend of the owners, but I’m starting to get very suspicious of how they do business here.” Aszkenazy said his objective, as a San Fernando native, is to promote business and preserve the cultural fabric of the community. He also said he contributed to the campaigns of Di Tomaso and Ramos, a fact Ramos confirmed: he said Pueblo gave Di Tomaso and him $200 each. “I hear comments like, ‘Oh, they’re buying everything,”‘ Aszkenazy said. “But in the city there must be thousands of pieces of property (on the market) and maybe we are working on 10 of them. Is that so bad?” Ramos and Di Tomaso say it’s not that simple. Pueblo recently completed the $2.7 million Library Plaza project, which opened in July, on Mcclay Street. The company has also purchased the old Social Security building, also on Mcclay, and, according to Montanez, plans to build a Spanish-style paseo linking the civic center to the other side of Mcclay Street. Ramos said he and Di Tomaso were never informed about plans for the paseo project. “I heard about this and I said, ‘Wow, we just went through goals and objectives a few months ago and we didn’t have any knowledge of it,”‘ Ramos said. Aszkenazy said he showed the rough plans for his paseo project to Montanez and Ornelas before his departure, but added that there has been no “back-room” meeting with the city to discuss the project. “This is still just in the planning stages,” said Aszkenazy. “In no way have we formalized a deal here or have we made it secret.” Aszkenazy’s wife and business partner, Martha Diaz-Aszkenazy, suggested the political pendulum swings both ways. She said Ramos has long backed projects by Grapevine, whose owner, James Acevedo, also happens to be a political consultant who worked for state Assemblyman Tony Cardenas, a Democrat from Mission Hills. Ramos and Montanez are both planning to run for Cardenas’s seat in 2002 when he is termed out, and Diaz hinted that Ramos may be pushing for Grapevine projects to obtain Acevedo’s political support. “I think that what Mr. Ramos is objecting to is good old American ingenuity,” said Diaz. “I think if we own properties privately, who says it’s wrong for us to put all of our eggs in one basket, and if we decide that San Fernando is a good place to develop, what’s wrong with that?” Acevedo did not return several calls for comment. Di Tomaso praised Pueblo’s library complex but said it would have never been completed without the help of Ornelas and required way too much financial assistance from the city. “We gave them $1 million on a $2-million project,” Di Tomaso said. “The library project is beautiful and they’ve done a great job. But what you don’t know is what happened on the way to getting that project up and running.” Aszkenazy said the city was counting on additional funds from the Los Angeles Community Development Commission for the library project on top of the $1 million it received from the city, but those funds did not come through. He said he was able to secure financing in “other ways” and did so without any additional assistance from the city. Di Tomaso said Pueblo’s projects tend to call for smaller businesses and she wants to see other developers come in with projects with greater revenue potential. “We don’t just need big box projects, but at the same time we can’t expect tiny little book stores to come into the city because they can’t bring the kind of revenue we need here,” she said. Meanwhile, Montanez said accusations that she, her sister and Hernandez are “anti-development” are simply false. She said she is trying to establish a business development foundation that would lobby for federal funding, and the city has a number of projects on the table that have no connection to Pueblo whatsoever. Starbucks Coffee and a Hometown Buffet restaurant will open at Mission Plaza downtown in the next six months. Both of those projects are receiving city assistance. Rydell Automotive Group on San Fernando Road has spent $10 million on an expansion of its dealership, expected to generate an additional $765,000 in annual city sales tax revenue. The city has also received $986,000 in state funds for the Mcclay Street beautification project, and there are plans to restore the Azteca Theatre. Montanez said Pueblo is unfairly being targeted because of politics. “Pueblo is a local company and they hire local people, so I have no problems with saying that they are exactly the kind of developer I want to see come in our city,” she said.
