Elito Santarina of Carson

Once More, with Feeling

By VAL G. ABELGAS
January 2003

For more than two decades, Lito Santarina has served the people of Carson, both as a teacher to its youth and as a leader of the community. Twice in the last four years, Santarina tried to elevate his community service to Carson's City Hall. Twice, he lost by a few hundred votes.

In 1999, Santarina joined the race for the City Council after withdrawing from the race two years earlier to help Pete Fajardo win the mayoralty as his campaign manager. At that time, he had a falling out with Fajardo and was running against two of Fajardo's proteges -- Filipino-American Manny Ontal and African-American Rhaunda Frank. Santarina came out third behind Ontal by only a little more than 500 votes for the second of two City Council slots up for grabs. Frank topped the elections.

The loss did not deter Santarina from seeking the mayoralty post two years later, but again lost to Fajardo's candidate, Darryl Sweeney.

It was ironic that Santarina would lose to candidates supported by Fajardo, Santarina's compadre and friend longtime friend. Santarina even served as Fajardo's campaign manager in the latter's successful runs for the City Council and the mayoralty of the ethnically diverse city south of Los Angeles.

It was a turn of fate that the persons who defeated this man of integrity would find themselves in deep trouble on charges of bribery and extortion. Frank and Ontal, two very young politicians who were oozing with promise when they first appeared in the political scene, resigned from the City Council even as they prepared to turn state witness against Sweeney, who had been charged in a garbage-hauling contract controversy. Fajardo, the three's main supporter, has also been charged with extortion and bribery in a separate case.

A highly motivated public servant, Santarina is not one to abandon his desire to serve his community despite two crippling setbacks. "It has been my long-cherished dream and commitment to serve the people of Carson. I cannot just give up on it just because I lost two previous elections," said Santarina, a teacher in Carson schools for more than two decades now.

Santarina is again seeking one of two City Council seats up for grabs in the March 4 elections, the same seats he lost to Frank and Ontal, whose terms were due to expire but who vacated their seats several months before the elections. But this time around, things are looking good for Santarina's campaign, and the charismatic educator may be soon be singing to the tune of Frank Sinatra's "Love is Lovelier the Second Time Around," or something like "Politics is lovelier the third time around..."

This time around, Santarina has every reason to be more optimistic.

The series of scandals that rocked Carson involving the very camp that he had previously ran against in the two previous elections, has raised the bar in Carson politics. It has elevated integrity, sincerity and honesty as the main criteria for electing people to public office. And Santarina is known to possess all these qualities.

It is because of his clean image that the highly respected and veteran Councilwoman Kay Callas has openly supported his campaign this year. Callas has issued this appeal to Carson residents on behalf of Santarina: "I strongly urge you to vote Santarina for the City Council. I personally attest to Santarina's sincere honesty and solid character, resiliency, independent-mindedness, and sound judgment."

Why is Santarina running again for an elective post?

"Because I really want to serve the people of Carson. Because the city needs a responsible change. Because, together with the other city leaders, I want to remove the racial barriers that continue to hamper the growth of the City of Carson," Santarina said.

Santarina's campaign has been boosted by people from all sectors of the city. Among his volunteers are supporters of Callas and Councilman Jim Dear, and former supporters of Fajardo, Ontal, former Councilwoman Lorelei Olaes, and former Mayor Mike Mitoma. He is also expecting the full endorsement of the influential Homeowners Against Rent Decontrol (HARD), a group composed mostly of mobile home owners and renters which boasts of from 3,000 to 4,000 voting members.

There are 18 candidates for two City Council seats, including four Filipino-Americans. But keen Carson political observers said it would be a three-cornered fight among Santarina, Carl Robinson, and former Councilwoman Vera Robles-Hewitt.

Santarina enjoys the full support of a coalition called The Filipino Forum, from where most of his volunteers come from. The Filipino Forum is an informal coalition of concerned Filipino-American residents of Carson whose main objective is to bring back a Filipino to the City Council. To attain this goal, they felt that there should be only one Filipino candidate in the elections, according to the main convenor and chairman, Felix Acosta Jr.

Acosta said the choice of Santarina as the Forum's candidate concluded a 10-month selection process. "We felt that we need to work together if we want Filipinos in Carson to have a better future," Acosta said.

The original members of the Forum included Acosta, Vic Medina, who serves as Santarina's campaign manager; Ray Monzon, Lito Sanpiandante, Emil Loyola, Amador Saenz, Jun Guerrero, Virgie Abiang, Jun Quitangan, Art Bongco, Flor Cabanatan, Eli Embisan, Ernie Manzo, Andrew Guerrero, Henry Pacled, Connie Rufana, Manny Salomon, Ron Advincula, Bing de la Vega, Virgie Sanchez, Al Velasco, Pat Farinas.

They selected a panel of facilitators to expedite discussions and the selection process by getting the inputs of the community and establishing the criteria for the selection of the candidate.

The panel then invited the persons who were interested in running for the City Council to join the discussions, among them Santarina, Loyola, Joe Merton, Advincula, Sanpiandiante, and Fortunato Tingzon.

Loyola withdrew from the selection process, allegedly saying that he was asked to run by Mayor Sweeney. Merton decided he would run for city treasurer. Sanpiandiante dropped out for the sake of unity. Tingzon, who originally wanted to run for city clerk, is now running for city treasurer. Their withdrawal left Santarina and Monzon vying for the berth. Santarina emerged the winner during the caucus, and Monzon gracefully accepted the Forum's decision and even volunteered as deputy campaign manager for Santarina.

"The difference between Lito's previous election campaigns and this year's campaign is that Lito ran on his own the two previous times, but now he has the full support of the coalition of Filipino-Americans in Carson," Acosta said.

Santarina is married to the former Anita Cruz Aves. The couple has raised their three children in the city of Carson. Santarina, who has been an LAUSD educator since 1976, currently teaches at Carnegie High, Banning High and Wilmington Middle Grade School. In 1998, he received the "Torch of Service" award from the Asian Pacific Islanders Educators Association. The year before, he was named "Outstanding Educator" by the Lions Club International. He has also been recognized for "Exceptional Leadership P.T.S.A. in Public Schools" by the State Dept. of Education. He sits as board member of Joint Efforts Inc., a non-profit community service organization and acted as co-chairman of the 30th anniversary celebration of Carson in 1998. He served as a member of the city-wide Advisory Council of Carson from 1992-94; as Parks and Recreation Commissioner from 1995-96 and Planning Commissioner from 1997-98. Santarina is a proponent sponsor of the Youth Commission and Commissioner of the Senior Citizens Advisory Commission. He is credited with originally conceptualizing the creation of the Public Safety Commission and the Senior Citizens and Veterans Commission.