Anthony Miranda, now the acting chief of Bell Police, was a patrol officer back then and stopped by Aguilar’s house to welcome the family to Bell.

“It’s almost like when somebody moves to the block, the neighbors stop by, and here, the police department was like that,” Aguilar said.

Over the years, Aguilar said he got to know all the police officers in Bell. In fact, it was a threat to the police department that first introduced Aguilar to community activism and eventually convinced him to run for Bell City Council on March 8.

A longtime friend and police officer called Aguilar last June, alerting him to a possible proposal to disband the police department and contract with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

“[The police department] knew I was very acquainted with the community and wanted to know what I could do to help,” Aguilar said. “As of then, we only knew about [the council] wanting to disband the police department. We did not know about the corruption.”

Aguilar, his wife and two daughters made 2,000 fliers and spent that afternoon going door to door, leaving them in parking lots and with businesses, to drum up opposition to the council’s plan.

The next day, Monday, June 7, Aguilar said 300 to 400 residents showed up at the City Council meeting to protest of disbanding the police department.

“Before this, only 20 or 30 people would show up,” Aguilar said. “Since all the chaos was going on, the council postponed discussing the issue until June 9. Oscar Hernandez said something like, ‘These ignorant Hispanics won’t come back so let’s postpone it.’”

But two days later, Aguilar said around 600 people showed up at City Hall.

Aguilar said the controversy from the police issue helped citizens to garner the attention of the media. Aguilar said he and others asked to have the city council salaries checked, which led to the breaking of the corruption scandal by the Los Angeles Times.

“You put two and two together, you start to know something’s not right,” Aguilar said. “Our fight was no longer just the police department, it was to fight the corruption in the city.”

Aguilar said because his name and face were at the forefront of the citizen movement, his family and community encouraged him to run for a seat on the new City Council.

“I’ve never been in politics, but the outrage over people losing their homes led to my decision to run,” Aguilar said.

He and his family also nearly lost their home. Aguilar said he pays $9,000 per year in property taxes, and figures he should be paying half that amount.

“I said, ‘I don’t know too much about politics’, but the community looked to me to lead and I could not let them down,” Aguilar said.

In addition to his campaign for city council, Aguilar is also trying to start his own contracting business in Bell. He is still waiting to apply for his contractor’s license. Aguilar previously worked as a general contractor for Allied Construction.

Saving Bell

Aguilar’s campaign is focused heavily on his plans to save the Bell Police.

“My plan is to check into their salaries and check neighboring police agencies and see what salaries they are making,” Aguilar said. “My worst case scenario is to disband. I want to see if we can make cutbacks instead.”

Aguilar said he would try to cut down on police overtime by moving to three 12-hour shifts a week. He seeks to decrease salaries by 5 to 10 percent and have officers pay into their benefits and pension plans while they are employed.

“I am willing to work with department as much as I can,” Aguilar said. “I will work toward making my community safe and secure instead of working toward the dollar, because you can’t have the dollar without making the community safe and secure.”

Aguilar said a fully staffed local police department is necessary to maintain public safety.

“I know all the police officers personally,” Aguilar said. “That’s the advantage of knowing your police department by name and seeing them every day, versus the Sheriff’s Department, where you would see them once a month when something happened.”

Aguilar said public safety is also an important factor in building the Bell economy.

“It’s great that we want to bring in new businesses, but if the statistics show high crime rates, it’s not going to be attractive,” Aguilar said.

Aguilar wants to lower business fees to comparable rates to neighboring cities and said this method will attract more businesses and generate more revenue for the Bell economy.

“I want to agree with the customer because they are the customers,” Aguilar said. “I want to make it more accessible to get permits to build and do things.”

Coast to Coast

Aguilar was born in 1964 in Manhattan, New York. In 1971, Aguilar, his mother and his siblings moved to El Sereno, Calif. He attended Woodrow Wilson High School and wanted to join the Marines after graduation but was dissuaded by his mother.

“With four brothers and a sister, financially, I was not able to go to college, so it was straight to work,” Aguilar recalls.

Aguilar worked for the city of Los Angeles in the General Services department for many years. He worked in the city’s offices and parking garages.
When asked how he ended up in Bell, Aguilar told a bittersweet story that began over 22 years ago.

“A friend of mine was killed and he lived in South Gate,” Aguilar said. “When I went to visit my deceased friend’s family, I met my future wife, who lived across the street.”

Aguilar says the story is “much more romantic than I’m telling” and jokes, “Well, three kids and 22 years later, here we are!”

After getting married, Aguilar and his wife decided to move to Bell because it is located between South Gate and El Sereno.

“We drove through Bell and liked it because it was small, clean and had a low crime rate,” Aguilar said. “We bought our first house here and it will be 18 years next month that we’ve lived in Bell.”

Aguilar said he and his wife saw Bell as a strong community in which to raise their family.

“I told my wife, ‘We made a good choice,’” Aguilar said. “It was one small city that was well-rounded, well-united and everybody just got along.”

Aguilar has three children. His older daughter, 18, is a freshman at UC Riverside. His younger daughter, 10, is a 5th grader at Woodlawn Elementary School.

His son, 20, is a third-year student at Cal State L.A. who wants to become a police officer. Aguilar’s son is involved in the Bell Police Explorers, a program through which local youth participate in police events and shadow officers in the field.

“His first choice is Bell Police, but if not, he is also looking into working at the Sheriff’s Department or at the federal level,” Aguilar said.

Aguilar and his family attend Calvary Chapel, a Christian congregation in South Bay. He views the salary scandal as a catalyst for change in his community.

“I based my life a lot on the Bible and the one chance that one has to ask for forgiveness is when you’re still alive,” Aguilar said. “While you’re alive, you have the chance to rebuild and to change.”

Aguilar said his faith has taught him to be slow to speak and quick to listen. He said this outlook has helped him to connect with the community and think in “we,” not “me”.

“It’s not what I can do, it’s what we are going to do together,” Aguilar said. “I have no self-interest. I have no self-gain. I have gone through the same trials and tribulations as everyone in Bell and I have their best interests at heart.”

The new council will face many challenges to return Bell to solid financial and political footing.

“As long as we have people willing to take the place of new government, as long as there are people who want to make a difference, there is nothing we can’t do together,” Aguilar said. “We will face more turmoil, but we still have a fighting community. We have a community that is united.”

Reach reporter Vicki Chen here