Inglewood City Council

The Inglewood City Council has reversed its earlier decision to raise cash by allowing its Police Department to send confiscated weapons to an auctioneer. The practice, which is conducted by up to 100 cities around the state, has drawn the anger of citizens as well as public health experts and others who are working to curb high homicide rates among inner-city youths. The council vote Tuesday night was unanimous.

The Inglewood City Council tonight will consider asking an independent investigator to review a spate of officer-involved shootings that has resulted in three deaths in the last three months. The council will decide whether to engage the services of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's Office of Independent Review to analyze the Police Department shootings, officials said. The announcement comes on the heels of state and federal officials calling for separate investigations.

Inglewood City Council members are talking a lot these days about phone bills. That's because it has come to light that in the 39 months since they received cellular car phones, they have done more than $38,000 worth of talking--at taxpayer expense. Now, they say, they've gotten the message: With the city facing a $3-million budget deficit, it's time to stop reaching out so much.

An Inglewood city councilwoman said Friday she will ask for a special session of the council to discuss the city's handling of an investigation into an alleged sexual assault of a young woman by a uniformed patrol officer. Councilwoman Judy Dunlap said she was troubled that she and other city officials learned about the incident only when The Times reported Thursday that the FBI and Inglewood police had launched investigations into the alleged assault at a hotel on Century Boulevard.

Two longtime Inglewood city councilmen face tough runoff elections on Tuesday in which the challengers are questioning whether the city is better off than it was 12 years ago when the incumbents first took office. How the voters answer the question should determine whether Daniel K. Tabor, 38, and Anthony Scardenzan, 64, are reelected to serve what would be their fourth terms. Tabor, who represents District 1 on the five-member City Council, is being challenged by Curren Price Jr.

Inglewood City Council candidates Ervin (Tony) Thomas and Garland Hardeman, who fought a two-year legal battle to the state's highest court over their 1987 election contest, will meet again in a special election Oct. 3 to decide who will fill the city's vacant District 4 seat. The special election, approved by the Inglewood City Council on Tuesday and expected to cost about $10,000, was ordered by a Superior Court judge in October 1987, after Hardeman alleged Election Code violations in the Thomas campaign.

In the future, it will be the Inglewood City Council that hires new department heads, such as the police chief, instead of the city administrator. The City Council approved the new form of hiring last week. In the past, council members only approved the hiring of the city administrator and the city attorney. In turn, the city administrator and the city attorney were responsible for hiring department heads.

The Inglewood City Council has voted to continue its appeal of a Superior Court judge's annulment of the 1987 election of City Councilman Ervin (Tony) Thomas. The 3-0 vote Tuesday means that the new election ordered by the Superior Court and upheld by a state District Court of Appeal last week will be delayed indefinitely. If the city had not opted to appeal the decision, Thomas would have stepped down May 1 and faced candidate Garland Hardeman in a rematch of their 1987 run-off election.

With all votes counted in two Inglewood City Council races, incumbent Garland Hardeman led three challengers by a narrow margin in District 4 while incumbent Jose Fernandez had a hefty lead in the District 3 contest. The winner in each race must garner a majority of votes to avoid a June 6 runoff.

A reward totaling $25,000 was announced this week for information leading to arrests and convictions in shootings that left five people dead in Inglewood during two nights of violence last month. The Inglewood City Council authorized the payment for information in the attacks that killed two people Jan. 26 and three more the next night, Inglewood spokesman Truman Jacques said. Police described the violent nights as two of the worst in the city's history. On Jan.

In a move that could discourage Wal-Mart from opening a superstore, the City Council voted 4-0 to approve an ordinance requiring extra scrutiny of proposals to build giant retail outlets. The measure does not name Wal-Mart specifically, but it takes aim at the kinds of retail operations that fit its superstore profile -- outlets that are more than 100,000 square feet, with more than 10% of the area devoted to grocery products.

Labor leader Ralph L. Franklin on Tuesday defeated former Councilwoman Lorraine M. Johnson for the District 4 seat on the Inglewood City Council, regaining a post he had held for a month before a judge in July ordered a new election. Election night returns put the tally at 961 votes, or 77%, for Franklin and 283, or 23%, for Johnson. "Our taxpayer voters have spoken. It's settled once and for all," Franklin said. "I'm truly blessed and excited to be taking on this responsibility again."

The Inglewood City Council will hold a new election in the 4th Council District on Sept. 16, but has refused to let former Councilwoman Lorraine M. Johnson have the seat back in the interim. A Los Angeles Superior Court judge earlier this month ordered the new election -- which will be the fifth balloting for the seat since November -- after ruling that a run-off candidate did not qualify because he did not live in the district.

Setting the stage for a new election to fill a City Council seat in Inglewood, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge tentatively ruled Friday that one of the two contestants in the June 3 runoff was not a legal resident of the council district. Judge Robert L. Hess said community activist Mike Stevens was not eligible to run for the District 4 seat when he narrowly edged Councilwoman Lorraine M. Johnson in the April 1 primary, denying her a slot on the runoff ballot.

A group of Inglewood City Council candidates hunkered down for hours Wednesday with their entourages, election officials and a pair of police officers for a hand recount in two controversial races that did not change the outcome of either contest. Eloy Morales Jr., a field deputy to Assemblyman Jerome Horton (D-Inglewood), won the District 3 race by 41 votes over Lennox School Board President Trini Jimenez.

In most local elections, the hottest contests are almost always the races for City Council or school board, the high-visibility, policy-setting offices that sometimes even serve as springboards into state or federal posts. But in Inglewood, where voters will choose a half-dozen office-holders on Tuesday, it is the intense battle for the important but politically unglamorous job of city clerk that is generating most of the attention.

When the Inglewood City Council meets Nov. 19, members will be getting an added incentive for showing up: a pay raise. Voters on Tuesday approved a municipal initiative called Proposition Y that could increase by fivefold the salary that council members now earn. Council members earn $9,696 a year. The mayor is paid $19,392. But the initiative, approved by nearly 60% of the voters, allows council members to increase their salary to $47,252. The mayor can receive up to $94,504.

The Inglewood City Council will honor hometown hero Darryl Taylor, an Inglewood resident who was a crew member aboard the Amtrak Sunset Limited train that was derailed in the Arizona desert last month. Taylor, 29, an Amtrak chef, was sent flying through the air and knocked unconscious for a time by the impact of the crash. Although suffering from a concussion, Taylor managed to join other crew members in rescuing trapped passengers.

Here is a guide to the players in the other contested races on Tuesday's ballot. Council members are elected by district, while school board members run for specific offices but are elected districtwide. * Council District 3: Councilman Jose Fernandez decided not to seek another term, setting up a two-way contest between attorney Trini Jimenez, president of the Lennox School Board -- endorsed by Mayor Roosevelt Dorn -- and Eloy Morales Jr.

The Inglewood City Council reversed its decision to bar Wal-Mart Stores Inc. from building a super center in the city, giving organized labor at least a temporary setback in its efforts to limit the giant retailer's expansion in California. The 3-0 vote Tuesday night came in response to a request from Inglewood's interim city attorney, who advised council members to repeal the ordinance on procedural grounds. Interim City Atty.