DOWNEY — Cities are supposed to work for the well-being of its residents, but a regional agency is charged with looking out for cities.

The California Contract Cities Association, established in 1954 and now based here, advocates for its member cities concerning taxes and other issues with county and state governments.

“We do legislative work with county and state governments to make sure our cities are treated fairly and equitably concerning revenues which cities need for the well-being of their residents,” said Sam Olivito, executive director of the organization since 1984.

“Every city is a contract city, including Los Angeles. No city has the funds to provide everything for residents. They must contract for some of those services,” said Olivito, who represents 70 cities.

They include Bellflower, Downey, Huntington Park, Lakewood, Lynwood, Monterey Park, Norwalk, Paramount, Pico Rivera, Santa Fe Springs and South Gate.

Since Feb. 3, Olivito has operated his five-person staff at 11027 Downey Ave. with a total budget of $300,000 to cover salaries, office expenses and legislative activities.

Funds come from membership fees that are assessed the cities based on their population and assessed property valuation.

Contract Cities is overseen by a board of directors from its member communities. It meets at 6:30 p.m. on the third Wednesday of the month at various locations.

The current president of the board is Lois Gaston of Duarte. The incoming president who will be installed later this month is Laura Olhazzo, a council member in La Canada/Flintridge.

In recent months the association has successfully gathered signatures to place a proposition on the state ballot Nov. 2 to outlaw the state borrowing transit funds from cities.

He said the cities sympathize with the state and its budget problems and “don’t want the state to go under” as that would affect the cities. But fixing the budget problem is up to the state legislature.

“Our cities have taken tough steps to balance their budgets,” Olivito said. “There have been cutbacks, furloughs and layoffs. We want the state to fix its problems without taking revenues that cities need to pay for public safety and other services.”

On the county level, Contract Cities successfully negotiated with Los Angeles County to reduce the cities’ share of the Sheriff’s Department Liability Fund from six percent to the current four percent.

That fund pays for settlements should anyone successfully sue the Sheriff’s Department for improper acts committed by deputies.

Born in Morgantown, W. Va., Olivito grew up in Dearborn, a suburb of Detroit; and came with his family to Southern California in 1954.

He graduated from Huntington Park High School and attended UCLA, earning certificates in business administration, and public administration.

Olivito worked for a number of years with the Southern California Rapid Transit District, which served the area at that time. It has since been replaced by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

Contract Cities was actually established in Lakewood in 1954 under a local official, John Sanford Todd, known as the father of contract cities.

The agency was based for a time in South El Monte and most recently operated in Paramount but lost its lease when the landlord expanded his holdings.

Olivito said the Downey office became available at a reasonable rent and provided a convenient location for he and his staff.

The building is owned privately and its owner is not connected to the city. Former Downey Councilman Kirk Cartozian rents part of the building for his real estate office.

Olivito and his wife, Sharon, who is his office manager, have a total of six adult children, 14 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

Despite improvement in the national economy, things look shaky for cities for another year or so, he said.

Future plans will be discussed at the group’s annual conference in Indian Wells Thursday through Sunday.

Jack Keyser of the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation and a representative of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will speak at the conference.

Also on the agenda is a discussion on a recent lawsuit that tried to prevent the state from taking some $2.3 billion in redevelopment funds from the cities.

The suit was brought by the California Redevelopment Association, to which many Contract Cities belong. The judge, however, has ruled for the state.
“We will have to look carefully at everything we can do to continue services to residents to maintain their quality of life,” Olivito said.