Arriving Just in Time for a Crisis : INGLEWOOD: Inglewood: Council newcomers Curren Price Jr. and Judith L. Dunlap will take office less than two weeks before the austerity budget deadline.

After knocking off 12-year Inglewood City Council incumbents, surprise runoff winners Curren Price Jr. and Judith L. Dunlap immediately began preparing to face the city’s worst economic crisis in 15 years.

Price, a 42-year-old economic development consultant, captured more than 52% of the vote Tuesday to defeat three-term Councilman Daniel K. Tabor, 38, in District 1. In District 2, Dunlap, 48, a former elementary school teacher, defeated 64-year-old Anthony Scardenzan, winning with 51.4%, a 40-vote margin.

Under the City Charter, the terms of the new council members are to begin at midnight June 20, just in time for Price and Dunlap to tackle a proposed city budget that must be adopted by July 1. Coming amid the city’s tightest cash squeeze since the passage of Prop. 13 in 1978, the proposal calls for austerity steps that include more than two dozen layoffs, a series of staff demotions and an administrative reorganization of the Police Department.

“Obviously, I’m going to have to do a lot of studying right away,” Price said after his victory. As he did during his campaign, Price said he wants to find other ways than layoffs to balance the budget, but he offered no details.

Dunlap, by contrast, got down to specifics immediately. Within minutes of her victory, she put City Manager Paul D. Eckles on notice that she expects him to work harder for what she portrayed in her campaign as an excessive salary.

“I want him to manage the city in such a way that our budget deficit is brought under control,” she said. She denied that she wants to see Eckles fired. She said she simply wants him to be a better manager and to stop “dictating” to the council.

“They want the city to go in a new direction,” Dunlap said of the voters who chose her over Scardenzan. “They want to see progress. They want to be treated better (by the city administration).”

Dunlap’s win comes after a heated contest in which she told voters that, under Scardenzan and his City Council colleagues, Inglewood has gone downhill in the past 12 years while taxes, and especially crime, have gone up.

It did not help Scardenzan that in a highly publicized incident two weeks ago, Police Chief Oliver M. Thompson was knocked off his bicycle and held up at gunpoint on one of the city’s main thoroughfares while riding home from a council meeting.

Egged on by an array of factions in the city that are allied against Eckles and his top administrators, Dunlap made much during her campaign of the city manager’s salary, which is $150,000 a year, plus thousands more in deferred compensation and other benefits.

Dunlap was supported by Councilman Garland Hardeman, who was not up for reelection and is a bitter foe of Eckles. Dunlap insisted after her victory, however, that she will not be part of any council alliance and will vote independently.

Unlike the Dunlap-Scardenzan race, the Price and Tabor contest was, publicly at least, a low-key event. Until Price announced his candidacy, the two men were good friends.

During the campaign, they agreed on all the issues--except when it came to whether it was time for Tabor to go. Price said Tabor, who is a United Way executive, failed to communicate sufficiently with his constituents.

“We’re going to work, certainly, on communicating with the citizens and keeping citizens informed,” Price said.

Though calm on the surface, the Price-Tabor race was played out against a backdrop of political rivalry in which Tabor was the target as his foes banded together to defeat him. Assemblyman Curtis Tucker Jr., for example, backed Price. Tabor earned the enmity of the Tucker family when he ran--unsuccessfully--for the Assembly against Tucker’s father, Curtis Tucker, who held the Inglewood-based legislative seat until he died of cancer.

Likewise, Mayor Edward Vincent is no political friend of Tabor’s, though it is unclear how much campaigning he did in Price’s behalf. Vincent did, however, work hard for Scardenzan, only to see him defeated.

Inglewood

City Council District 1

100% Precincts Reporting: votes (%)

Curren Price Jr.: 2,172 (52%)

Daniel K. Tabor*: 1,981 (48%) District 2

100% Precincts Reporting: votes (%)

Judith L. Dunlap: 735 (51%)

Anthony Scardenzan*: 695 (49%)