Vista Official’s Washington Trip Stirs Controversy

To hear some old-timers tell it, folks here haven’t been this upset since a top city official got a young office clerk pregnant a quarter of a century ago.

The issue? A councilman’s request that the city pay for his recent trip to Washington, where he attended a White House luncheon honoring former Democrats who had recently joined the Republican Party.

Councilman Ed Neal’s contention that the city should cover $1,136 in expenses for his plane fare and hotel accommodations while attending the June 10 luncheon with President Reagan has unleashed a storm of controversy unusual even for Vista, a city accustomed to controversy.

Neal maintains that Vista should underwrite the trip because he was conducting official city business--making contacts, lobbying for legislation affecting North County and so forth. But as scores of outraged residents see it, the councilman’s trip was a politically partisan excursion and an entirely unsuitable use of city funds--no matter how small the amount.

“If he had gone back there to a conference or for some other specific event to represent the City of Vista, then fine, I could handle this,” said Patsy Filo, a community activist whose voice has led the chorus of protest on the issue. “But it is very clear that this was an ego-serving pleasure trip, and that’s not something the taxpayers should be asked to fund.”

Councilman Lloyd von Haden, who says he has received a steady stream of telephone calls from residents--Republicans and Democrats alike--infuriated by Neal’s request, agreed: “I don’t believe that his shaking the President’s hand did a thing for Vista. It was a purely personal political activity.”

Filo and a dozen other Vistans turned out Tuesday night to urge that the council deny Neal $936 in city funds for the trip. (The councilman already has received a $200 cash advance from the city, approved on a 4-1 vote last month.)

But a motion to that effect by Councilwoman Nancy Wade fell short of the necessary majority, failing 2-2 with Neal and Mayor Mike Flick in opposition, Von Haden in support and Gloria McClellan absent.

The issue did not die there, however. Von Haden quickly requested that the matter be continued to a future meeting attended by the full council. Neal is likely to lose at that point; McClellan has said she will probably oppose the use of city funds for his trip.

This time, Flick deserted his colleague and Von Haden got his way on a 3-1 vote.

Regardless of whether or not the city ultimately covers Neal’s travel expenses, residents and some officials agree that deeper issues lie beneath the dispute and are likely to fester on long after its resolution. Key among these, Filo said, are Mayor Flick’s legal troubles and Neal’s collecting unemployment checks while receiving his council salary.

“This whole mess is a symbol of a big undercurrent of disillusionment, both with Mr. Neal and with how things have been going in town,” Filo said. She noted that allegations that Neal collected 20 weeks of unemployment benefits while also drawing a council salary have “put a cloud over Vista.”

(The state filed a lawsuit against Neal to recover the benefits, but the lawsuit was dropped earlier this year because the statute of limitations had expired, according to state officials. Neal admits he collected the money but maintains that he had been told by state officials that there was nothing improper.)

The same is true, Filo said, of Flick, who was recently named in a $1.5-million civil lawsuit charging the mayor and a business partner with breach of contract and conspiracy to defraud 25 investors in a private venture. Flick has denied any wrongdoing.

Flick also was the object of criticism in May when he used $1,000 in city funds for a trip to Washington and New Jersey. Controversy over that expenditure led the council to adopt spending guidelines for the council and city staff members; the guidelines do not, however, apply to questions surrounding Neal’s trip.

Councilwoman McClellan said she discerns another force behind the eruption of emotion “over a few hundred dollars.” Increasingly unhappy about the city’s deteriorating downtown, potholed streets, notorious traffic problems, crowded schools and relatively weak city services, residents were “just waiting for an issue to seize hold of,” she said.

“The feeling was, ‘I’ve got this broken street light, or this dangerous intersection, or this or that problem and you tell me there’s no money. Then you go and do this,’ ” said McClellan, who said she has received “tons” of calls from “angry, very angry” constituents.

“This was really just the firecracker that set the whole thing off.”

But Flick disagreed. He believes the protest is nothing but a tempest in a teapot and blames “people who like controversy and turmoil any way they can get it” for exaggerating its scope.

“How could any council member from anywhere turn down an invitation to meet with the President of the United States?” Flick said. “That’s a tremendous honor, and a great advantage for the city. Before Councilman Neal went to Washington, the President probably didn’t even know Vista was on the map. Now he does.”

And Neal, who said his Washington visit increased Vista’s stature and allowed him to explore the possibility of securing private financing for a new city hall, characterized the dispute as an “overblown political squabble by two people who have their backs against the wall.”

“Mr. von Haden and Ms. McClellan don’t like the way the council is going now,” Neal said. “They see the majority of us getting business done and they see that they’re being ignored and overruled. This is just one way that they’re striking back.”

Meanwhile, Filo and fellow residents who mobilized on the issue remain incensed. They are firing off letters to President Reagan, Sen. Pete Wilson and Gov. George Deukmejian (“Republicans who should know what kind of people are joining their party,” as Filo put it), and there are rumblings of a recall effort.

“We are angry and frustrated, and we are not going to let this thing die,” Filo said.