ALHAMBRA >> Six members of various city boards, committees and commissions are relatives of City Council members, which has prompted some residents to cry nepotism.

The situation creates a conflict of interest, said Eric Sunada, who in November unsuccessfully ran for City Council in the First District.

“I don’t believe in nepotism,” Sunada said. “If the family member feels they’re the best person for the job, I guess it’s their right to do that. But I feel that there’s so many talented people out there that I find it hard to believe that they would need to stick within their families for these type of decisions.”

Yet the City Council has chosen some of their own. Michael Placido is on the Civil Service Commission & Board of Appeals. Linda Yamauchi serves on the Environmental Committee. Trent Yamauchi is a Parks & Recreation commissioner, and Michael Messina is the vice chairman on the Successor Agency Oversight Board to the Alhambra Redevelopment Agency. Additionally, Patrick Placido and Kristie Sham are on the Youth Commission, according to the city website.

Alhambra doesn’t pay any of these individuals, and the City Council appoints people for every position but the Oversight Board, the City Clerk said.

Mayor Gary Yamauchi and Councilmen Steven Placido are the only ones on the City Council who have appointed their own relatives, according to the city website.

Mike Shimpock, a Pasadena-based political consultant, said it’s uncommon for politicians to put their relatives on boards or commissions.

“Stacking boards and commissioners on boards is far more common with a dynastic system than with democracy,” he said.

Yet the six relatives are a minority because altogether the city has 81 people who are commissioners or board members. So the family ties account for about 7 percent of Alhambra’s supporting decision makers.

Shimpock said the small numbers of relatives in Alhambra’s city politics isn’t problematic, especially since elections there regularly go uncontested. The trouble lies elsewhere.

“You don’t have a lot of people that are engaged or participating (in Alhambra); for 80 positions, that is a lot of slots to fill for a city where you don’t have a lot of participation already,” Shimpock said. “There isn’t a politician breathing who would appoint someone who doesn’t share the same vision. They are confident that person is going to listen to their counsel and move their agenda forward.”

But some residents like Michael Lawrence still assert that Alhambra has been running on nepotism for years.

“We’re kind of used to this kind of thing here, and I think the most distressing part was that the former mayor — Mark Paulson’s son is now heading a department,” he said. “That kind of thing is very disturbing to us because Mark Paulson continues to be a big influence in Alhambra politics and in the Chamber.”

City staff declined to say if Chris Paulson was hired when his father was still an elected official. The younger Paulson is now Alhambra’s director of administrative services.

Yamauchi, whose wife and son are committee and commission members, said the City Council and staff always encourage citizens to participate in the decision making process. Yet, he said, only two members of the public regularly attend City Council meetings. If people have a gripe, they should go to a meeting and do something about it, he said.

“These commissioners do very little,” Yamauchi said. “They don’t make up anything. They just approve a few things, and all the meetings are open to the public if they should want to speak at the meetings. … See how quickly the meetings are handled, and you’ll see they’re not really as important as you think they are.”

Placido encouraged people to volunteer.

“They do a tremendous job and to make them think that they are only there because of nepotism is a tremendous disservice to them,” he said. “There’s plenty of places that they can serve. In fact, the last person I appointed served for one meeting and decided it wasn’t for him and resigned. There’s a shortage of people who want to participate.”

Sunada, who in December started Grassroots Alhambra to inform residents and hold elected officials accountable, said Alhambra is ripe for change.

“When I was going door to door talking to residents, there were many who were frustrated,” he said in an email. “They expressed a sincere desire to help by serving on commissions, submitted their applications, but were never contacted. For the City Council to be so insular — it’s a significant detriment to serving the wider community.”