Hernandez Recall Battle Divides 2 Brothers

Los Angeles officials aren’t the only ones who can’t agree on whether City Councilman Mike Hernandez should resign from office because of cocaine use.

The Molina family of Highland Park can’t, either.

Al Molina is leading the campaign to get Hernandez kicked out of City Hall.

Joe Molina is trying his best to keep Hernandez there.

The two brothers spent Sunday afternoon working on their rival causes--Joe Molina extolling Hernandez’s virtues at a Little League ceremony and Al Molina organizing recall petitions at the apartment that he has turned into a campaign headquarters.

Hernandez attended the season-ending trophy day at new ball fields in Elysian Park where excited young players were acknowledged. He received plaudits for helping get the baseball fields built.

Joe Molina, 46, is a coach and organizer of the 2-year-old Northeast Los Angeles Little League. He said people should forgive and forget the 1st District councilman’s drug problems and not forget the good that Hernandez has done for his district.

“Who doesn’t have a skeleton in his closet? If you live 40 or 50 years, you’re bound to have pulled a few boners,” Joe Molina said. “We wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for Mike Hernandez. He’s the one that got the ball rolling for us.”

Three miles away, Al Molina was viewing Hernandez’s appearance at the Little League event as unforgivable.

“Don’t tell me they named that ball field after that yo-yo,” he said about the still unnamed field. “Mike Hernandez shouldn’t have been there with those kids. He’s a role model for who? Cokeheads?”

The Molina brothers haven’t talked since Al Molina launched his recall campaign shortly after Hernandez’s arrest Aug. 21. The councilman pleaded guilty Oct. 27 to one count of cocaine possession.

Mayor Richard Riordan and several City Council members have urged Hernandez to resign. But he has vowed to stay in office as he undergoes a drug-diversion program.

“I figured if I didn’t step up, who the hell would?” Al Molina said of his effort to gather the signatures of 6,400 registered voters by Feb. 28 to force a recall election. The petition drive started about a month ago; so far more than 2,000 signatures have been obtained, he said.

Al Molina, a 64-year-old retired automobile wholesaler and father of three, charged that Hernandez used Sunday’s Little League event as part of a carefully crafted attempt to rehabilitate his image.

“My kid brother got it going, then Mr. Hernandez saw how great it was going and used it,” he said of the councilman’s involvement with the field.

Joe Molina, who works as an Amtrak ticket clerk and is the father of five, said city sanitation officials initially planned to turn a former landfill in Elysian Park into a grassy soccer field. But they agreed to put ball fields there after his Little League group asked for them and Hernandez stepped to the plate.

“A lot of people were disappointed and hurt” by Hernandez’s admitted cocaine use, Joe Molina acknowledged.

“But I look at what Mr. Hernandez has done for the community. I don’t condemn or judge anyone. I’m very happy with what the councilman has done with the district.”

Besides seeking Hernandez’s help with a new Highland Park ball field, Little League leaders will need the councilman’s assistance in renewing a lease on the Elysian Park fields two years from now, he said.

And they want his help in preventing city parks officials from turning one of the new Elysian Park fields over to adult ballplayers. The “hard-core drinking and gambling” that accompany adults to the field would not be compatible with Little Leaguers, Joe Molina said.

Hernandez agrees that the two age groups would be incompatible. But not because of drinking and gambling: “I wouldn’t say [adult] league is a bad element. . . . I’ve played it,” Hernandez said.

Youngsters attending Sunday’s ceremony seemed unaware of Hernandez’s legal and political problems. Their parents seemed unfazed by them.

“He was a force to get this ball field done,” said Frank Walling, a Hollywood resident whose son plays in Little League. “We appreciate what has been done here.”

Baseball coach Roger Segure, of Los Feliz, said the Molina-vs.-Molina split has not gone unnoticed by parents, however.

“It’s sort of like the Hatfields and McCoys,” Segure said. “I’ve told Joe to his face that he and his brother certainly are at opposite ends of the spectrum.”

The Molina brothers say they are at opposite ends of the sibling spectrum too. Al Molina is the oldest of 11 children and his brother is the youngest.

Al Molina said that in past years he and his brother have gone to family get-togethers during Christmas at the home of one of their sisters. This year might be different, however.

“I might be out of town this Christmas,” he said.