Democrat Alatorre’s Aide Also an Activist for the GOP : Politics: Shirley Minser sees no conflict between her two roles. Her boss doesn’t either.

During her long working hours, Shirley Minser is Democratic City Councilman Richard Alatorre’s liaison to the residents of Eagle Rock and Glassell Park.

In her spare time, she is a Republican Party activist, helping identify candidates for office and walking precincts to turn out a Republican vote.

Minser, 61, sees no conflict between her two roles. Neither does her boss.

“I never question her motives,” Alatorre said. “She cares about the community she lives in. That is the first thing, uppermost in her mind.”

Minser had been active in Eagle Rock for years before she started working for Alatorre. First she was a parent concerned about school issues and later a field deputy for Alatorre’s predecessor in the 14th Council District, Arthur K. Snyder.

A political pragmatist, she had no qualms about affiliating with a Democrat in order to stay involved in community affairs.

“In politics you have to work with Republicans and Democrats to get things passed,” she said. “I’m not a tunnel-vision Republican. . . . My basic interest is in the community.”

One close friend and community leader described Minser as “the mother of the community”--tireless, caring, protective, and also stubborn and always certain that she is right.

“Here is a woman that goes to meetings from maybe 7 a.m. until midnight,” said Katie Smith, a retired real estate broker who was president of the Eagle Rock Chamber of Commerce for three years.

“It would never occur to her to say, ‘Here’s a day off,’ ” Smith continued. “She just can’t help it. I think it’s her way of trying to protect the community. She feels that she knows what’s best.”

In Minser’s view, what is best for Eagle Rock is a strict Republican program, particularly on issues of growth and development.

“I’m a strong advocate of free enterprise,” she said. “If any developer or small businessman goes down and applies for permits--if it’s according to city code--I believe it should be granted. I don’t believe in controlling or putting handcuffs on people that want to make a living.”

But that philosophy has put her at odds with The Eagle Rock Assn., or TERA, a development watchdog group whose vocal members charge that Minser is indiscriminate in her support for new construction in the area.

“She is tremendously dedicated, but her view of what is good or bad for the community differs tremendously from the majority,” said architect Jeff Samudio, a TERA member. “We perceive the community as being bombarded by inappropriate development, and she doesn’t perceive the community as changing at all.”

Minser also acknowledges that she has philosophical differences with her boss.

“Basically, he is for the poor that can’t help themselves. He wants to make government serve them,” she said. “My philosophy is that you have to help yourself as much as you can and not think that government is going to do everything for you. You should go the full mile.”

But for the most part, Minser’s political positions rarely come into play in the course of her duties as Alatorre’s field deputy assigned to the Eagle Rock-Glassell Park area. Instead, she spends much of her time addressing problems that afflict Republicans and Democrats alike--such as insufficient street lighting, potholes, graffiti and parking.

Minser is well-respected by Alatorre’s three other field deputies for her ability to push a sometimes-sluggish city bureaucracy into action. Marcos Castaneda, the deputy for the Highland Park-Mount Washington area, described her as a tenacious advocate, who has no qualms about complaining to a supervisor if she is dissatisfied with a city employee’s response.

“ Persistent is too weak a word to use for her,” Castaneda said.

Minser’s first boss, former Councilman Snyder, recalled that when he was in office, the Department of Transportation was slow in responding to requests to tow abandoned cars from the community’s streets.

Fed up, Minser called a high-ranking department official and drove him around the neighborhood in her car, pointing out all the abandoned vehicles.

“She wouldn’t let him get out of the car,” Snyder said. After a few such tours, city transportation officials began responding more promptly to Minser’s requests.

“She’s like a bulldog,” he said. “She gets hold of a problem and she won’t let go till it’s solved.”

Several years ago, Minser had a contentious encounter with an apartment manager who was trying to evict some senior citizens from his building. As a result of Minser’s pressure, Smith said, the seniors were able to stay.

A short, grandmotherly figure in sensible shoes, Minser has a softer, more compassionate side. Friends said she returns all her phone calls and visits older residents in their homes.

Once she dug into her own pocketbook to rent a motel room and buy train tickets for a homeless family who couldn’t get established in Los Angeles and couldn’t afford to go home, Smith said.

“Everybody who gets in trouble in Eagle Rock, they call Shirley,” Smith said.

But although Minser may be the all-around community trouble-shooter, she does not dictate planning or land-use policy, said Alatorre’s planning deputy, Diego Cardoso.

Despite the sentiments of some TERA members, who feel that Minser’s free-enterprise emphasis strongly affects Alatorre’s positions on issues, Cardoso said he is the top adviser to the councilman on most development issues.

Minser’s opinions on proposed projects and planning initiatives in her area are noted, but, Cardoso said, Alatorre’s new emphasis on managed growth often sets him apart from his field deputy.

“Her job is to work with the community on a wider agenda; I work with the community on planning decisions,” Cardoso said.

Minser’s first foray into community affairs was in 1968, the year that the Eagle Theater offered a Saturday matinee double feature of “Born Free” and “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”

Parents in the community were outraged by the pairing of two films they considered incompatible, and Minser, who was active in the PTA, appealed to the theater owner to offer two children’s films every Saturday afternoon. To make the request more palatable, Minser even offered to distribute flyers advertising the special children’s program to all the schools in the area.

The theater owner agreed, and the first children’s double feature drew nearly 400 children, Minser recalled.

After that, Minser’s PTA work led her into the anti-busing campaign and an effort to prevent the Los Angeles Unified School District from selling an abandoned grammar school in the area.

While working on these issues, Minser met Snyder, then an up-and-coming young field deputy for Republican City Councilman John Holland. In 1974, then a councilman himself, Snyder appointed Minser as his field deputy.

Snyder explained that he wanted someone who was knowledgeable about the community; Minser was a natural choice. Not only was she familiar with the area, but she also shared his political vision.

Snyder’s resignation in 1985 left Minser concerned that she too would lose her post even though council offices are nonpartisan.

But when Alatorre--who had received Snyder’s endorsement--was campaigning in Eagle Rock, many neighborhood residents let it be known that Minser was important to them.

“I personally went to five candidate events for Alatorre,” Smith said. “Every time, at least one person stood up and said, ‘All I want to know is: If you are elected, are you going to keep Shirley Minser?’ ”

Kaye Beckham, the former president of the Chamber of Commerce, said, “He made a wise decision in keeping her on.”

Alatorre said he asked Minser to join his staff because of her knowledge of the community and her effectiveness in working with the city bureaucracy. The fact that she was an active Republican never gave him pause.

“I don’t hire people according to their political affiliations,” he said. “I hire according to the special things they bring to the office.”

Undoubtedly, though, Minser is something of an anomaly on Alatorre’s staff, just as Eagle Rock--with its high proportion of middle-class, Anglo, conservative-leaning voters--is an anomaly in Alatorre’s otherwise solidly Democratic, heavily Latino district.

Minser is one of only two Anglos on a staff of about 18, and there is no denying the political differences between her and her boss.

“I always kid with Richard,” she said. “I’ll say, ‘Here we go, another damn giveaway program.’ But he’s the councilman.”

Still, Minser said she has great affection for Alatorre, whom she sees at least once every two weeks when he makes his regular visits to his field office in the old Eagle Rock City Hall.

When they disagree, she is willing to subordinate her own beliefs to carry out his instructions. As she sees it, her job is to serve as Alatorre’s eyes, ears and voice in the community, not to assert her political will.

“I’m just the ambassador from Alatorre to the community,” she said. “That’s all I am. Just the ambassador.”

While working to bolster Alatorre’s position in the community, Minser has remained actively involved in the Republican Party. She serves on the party’s 41st Assembly District Central Committee, the group of experienced volunteers that oversees precinct operations.

But Alatorre said that before Minser ran for her central committee seat, she consulted with him.

“She’s a very loyal person,” he said. “She made it very clear that if it would create a problem for me for her to run, she wouldn’t do it.”

A potential for conflicts in Minser’s dual role could arise at election time. But it hasn’t yet and doesn’t appear likely soon. Alatorre’s council district--which extends from the Latino working-class neighborhoods of Boyle Heights up to Eagle Rock--is solidly Democratic, and there is little likelihood of any Republican launching an effective challenge.

In the election last April, no Republican even ran against Alatorre, and Minser walked precincts for him. If a fellow Republican were to challenge her boss, though, she doesn’t know what she would do.

“Thank God, I haven’t come across that issue,” she said.