By Nancy C. Arcuri

The March council elections in Monterey Park and Rosemead have already started out nasty and promise to become much worse until all the ballots are counted.

In Monterey Park Councilmembers Frank Venti and Mitch Ing are supporting Betty Tom Chu and Luis Estrada.  Mr. Venti formed his own committee to investigate Athens, our trash hauler, based on allegations made by people in Montebello during their city council meetings.

City Manager June Yotsuya was successful in her bid to have the Council vote on having a waste management consultant review and audit our contract with Athens.

Most of the meetings will be public except the legal reviews of the contract that will be done in closed session.

Mr. Venti and Mr. Ing and their candidates hope to win one more seat on Council.  They are using the Athens contract as one of their campaign issues.

Many longtime residents are very concerned about the Venti crowd winning a third seat. They feel that the Venti mob will fire the city’s law firm (Brown, Winfield, Canzoneri, Abrams with their 50 plus attorneys) and hire one employee to do the job.  The problem will be that one attorney would not be able to do the job successfully and have to outsource the city’s legal issues to multiple attorneys. This will mean higher costs for our legal fees and possible multiple losses of legal cases. Our legal team has a long and successful rate of victories for the city.

Another issue that looms just under our noses is one politician’s promise to let our firefighters go County. Although he calls this issue “a bold face lie” we know our firefighters’ union has long been campaigning for him and his candidates.

If the Venti team is successful in winning a third seat another one of their campaign issues will be to vote to place the question of going County on the ballot.

Some of our firefighters feel so strongly about going County that they have joined the County firefighters union.

They will be very busy campaigning to help the Venti team win another seat on the Monterey Park City Council.

Rosemead Councilmembers John Tran, John Nunez and Polly Low are so determined to try to defeat Councilmember Margaret Clark that they voted to amend the Zoning Ordinance to allow live poultry slaughtering and processing in their Light Manufacturing and Industrial (M-1) zone at the December 16 meeting.

Mrs. Clark and several residents objected to the issue of live poultry slaughtering that now is legal in all three of the M-1 zones in their city.

Mrs. Low, Mr. Nunez and Mr. Tran were extremely short sighted on this issue. They voted to protect one local business that has continually violated the city, county and state laws.

It seems that the owner of the Cal Poultry has been donating to their war chests.

The residents of Rosemead packed the Council Chambers on January 13 under the leadership of longtime Councilmember Margaret Clark to force Councilmembers Polly Low, John Tran and John Nunez to change their vote that allowed Cal Poultry to expand their chicken slaughter business on Garvey Avenue.

Residents have been complaining for years about the sickening odors and disgusting waste products at the slaughterhouse site. They were also concerned about the reduction of their property values and the business’ history of health code violations.

Mrs. Low, Mr. Tran and Mr. Nunez faced with a packed house voted to reverse their earlier support for Cal Poultry. They will take action to close this business down.

It has been very interesting to watch the Rosemead City Council meetings as the “terrible three” try to destroy the very city their promised to protect from all enemies.

They continue to plot to destroy Margaret Clark and Gary Taylor the only two Councilmembers who put the residents wishes first.

Rosemead residents have a chance to improve their city government by voting Maggie Clark back into office and voting for Sandra Armenta and Steven Ly to replace John Tran and John Nunez.

Yes the March local elections promise to be a very bloody battle indeed in Monterey Park and Rosemead

Voters should always educate themselves on all the issues and the candidates.  Meet them and asked them the hard questions on how they intend to improve your hometown.

Vote for the people that you would trust to do the right things for you, your family and your hometown.

Vote as if your very life and livelihood depend on the outcome of each election.

History has proven that all elections will impact you and your loved ones.

Wishing all of you a very happy, healthy and prosperous 2009!