Re “Carson Mayor Targeted in Sexual Harassing Suit” 

Dateline Carson – Is there something in the salty sea air of the South Bay that mystifyingly marries mayors in this region to controversy?

• Last month, Hawthorne Mayor Chris Brown was, and is, battling City Council colleagues and his hometown newspaper over his personal expenditures.
• Yesterday morning at 6:30, several hours before a periodic check-in with former Carson Mayor Jim Dear, over in Gardena, its mayor, Paul Tanaka, former undersheriff under ousted Lee Baca, surrendered to federal authorities on a corruption indictment that had been handed down. “Very arrogant,” Mr. Dear said of Mr. Tanaka, who, while under a large black legal cloud, ran for sheriff last November.
• And hours before that, Albert Robles, who succeeded Mr. Dear several weeks ago as the mayor of Carson, was named in a bawdy sexual harassment suit by the daughter of a colorful former legislator. Mr. Dear and Mr. Robles have been allies on the Carson Council dais, and of his friend’s present trouble, Mr. Dear said, “I don’t believe things I read in the newspaper.”

Standing slightly – and only slightly – off to the side is former Mayor Dear, who did not concede one inch of his hard-earned powerhouse profile in March when voters elected the standing mayor to be the new city clerk, formerly – but no more – a relatively obscure position. Obscurity and Mr. Dear are not a match, never have been.

From inside the city clerk’s office, he appears to be as deeply involved in the political day to day life of Carson as he was throughout his consistently headline-spawning mayoralty tenure that ended in the third week of March.

Since the 1990s, he has gained a wide variety of experience in multiple roles in Carson civic life, eminently qualifying him, he believes, for his demanding, multi-dimensional present post.

Two months into the city clerk portion of his career, Mr. Dear enthusiastically reports that “I am very, very busy. The job of city clerk is very different from mayor. Mayors are like an executive/legislative position, top leader in the city.

“The city clerk, on the other hand, is the defender of democracy. The city clerk’s office is a ministerial position.

“For me,” said Mr. Dear, “there is a lot to learn. But it is easy for me to adjust and learn because, first of all, I am a government and history teacher by profession.

“Second of all, I have been mayor of the city for over 11 years. I have been a candidate. And the city clerk is also the elections’ official, which is another hat, another role, the city clerk plays.”

(To be continued)