Residents Jeer City Council Members for Bad Behavior : Government: Citizens show disgust over a recent physical confrontation between Duran and Macias. The mayor pleads for another chance.

By JILL GOTTESMAN

Jan. 28, 1993 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

BELL GARDENS — A jeering, shouting crowd packed a City Council meeting this week, warning they will not tolerate the vicious infighting and physical confrontations that marked recent council sessions.

“Shame on you, shame on you all,” said community activist Marie Chacon, who led a successful campaign that placed four of the five council members in office last March.

Chacon’s message, which drew shouts of support as it was translated into Spanish, was simple: “We put you there, and we will take you out if you don’t stop all your scratching at each other.”

She was referring to a physical confrontation Jan. 11 between Councilman Frank Duran and then-Mayor Josefina (Josie) Macias, in which the city manager had to separate the two. At the same closed meeting, Councilman Rodolfo (Rudy) Garcia expressed relief that the council was firing its Jewish city attorney and naming a Latino successor.

Monday’s session was the first regular meeting since the clash between Macias and Duran. Witnesses at the Jan. 11 session said Macias pushed Duran, tried to slap him and then threw a chair in his direction after City Manager William Vasquez stepped between them. Two days later, the council voted 3 to 2 to oust Macias as mayor and install Duran in the largely ceremonial position, which rotates annually among council members.

At Monday’s meeting, audience members formed a line at the microphone, most of them waiting for an opportunity to berate the council members for their behavior.

Other speakers echoed Chacon’s stern warning.

“If you can’t get along with each other, then how do you expect us to get things done?” resident Alfredo Martinez asked.

A conciliatory Duran pleaded for another chance for the City Council. “If we could change what happened in the past two weeks, we would,” he said.

The council also came under attack for dismissing City Atty. Alan D. Gross. Several speakers demanded that the council members explain why they fired Gross and replaced him with Henry Barbosa, who had served previously as the city’s special counsel. Some speakers also criticized Garcia’s comments about Gross’ religion and demanded that Garcia resign.

“Is this true what we hear? Was Gross fired because of his religious affiliation?” demanded Barry Smith, who owns Bell Gardens Loan and Jewelry.

At one point, as Barbosa tried to explain that the council is prohibited by law from publicly discussing personnel matters, some members of the crowd rose to their feet, shouting: “Tell us! We have the right to know!” Others called for Gross--who sat quietly in the audience, biting his nails--to be reinstated.

Barbosa assured the audience, most of them standing and shouting, that Gross was not fired because of his religion.

Although the council refused to comment further about its decision to fire the city attorney, some council members had indicated previously that they thought Gross lacked expertise in municipal law and they preferred someone with more city experience.

As the shouting continued, Duran pounded his gavel and threatened to close the meeting.

Garcia, who has since apologized for his remarks about Gross, did not respond to demands for his resignation. Instead, at the end of the public session, the embattled councilman read aloud a supportive letter Gross had written to the Anti-Defamation League, which had called for Garcia to explain his remarks. Witnesses quoted Garcia as saying at the Jan. 11 session: “If it were my money, I would never have hired a Jew in the first place.”

In his letter to the league, Gross said the remark attributed to Garcia “is totally inconsistent with the character and reputation of the man. Rudy was always aware that I was Jewish just as I was always aware that Rudy was Hispanic, and we were proud of each other.”

The issue cropped up again Monday when the council convened for a closed session, however.

Macias handed out a memo to each council member demanding that Garcia resign because of his remarks about Gross. “When a person is guided by bigotry and racism, they have no right to be an elected official,” Macias wrote.

The other council members reportedly did not respond to Macias’ memo.

Garcia said in an interview Tuesday that he would not step down and echoed Duran’s plea that council members put the incidents of the past weeks behind them. “We want to move forward, and things like this won’t help,” he said. “(Macias) is still upset about what happened to her, but who’s fault was that?”

Garcia was one of the three council members who voted to remove Macias three months before her mayoral term was to have ended.

Macias did not speak throughout the lengthy public meeting Monday but read from a prepared memo at the conclusion.

“When I worked to make the changes in Bell Gardens, I worked with an unselfish heart,” she said. “One person cannot do these things alone, there has to be a leader. I am proud that I was that leader.”

Macias then listed a number of goals achieved during her term as mayor, including the hiring of 11 bilingual police officers out of 13 new hires, creating gang-diversion and neighborhood-watch programs, and developing the city’s first Mexican Independence Day celebration and Cultural Heritage Day parade.