Redondo Mayor, Council Dean Sail on a Collision Course : Attempt to Oust Doerr as City Delegate Heats Power Struggle

To Mayor Barbara Doerr, it smacked of cheap political retribution. To her nemesis, Councilman Archie Snow, it represented a textbook example of good politics.

Snow, joined by three of his four City Council colleagues, launched an all-out assault on Doerr this week, voting to remove the mayor from her prestigious position as delegate to the Los Angeles County Division of the League of California Cities.

Snow acknowledged at the same time that Doerr’s name appears on a list--which some at City Hall are calling Snow’s hit list--of political foes he is determined to keep from influential city positions.

The council voted 4 to 1, with Councilwoman Marcia Martin dissenting, to appoint recently elected Councilman Jack Chapman as delegate to the league and Councilman Ronald Cawdrey, whom Snow helped to survive a recall effort in June, as alternate. Both Chapman and Cawdrey are closely aligned with Snow.

The local division of the league, which represents 84 cities in Los Angeles County, meets once a month and determines what issues and legislation the cities will promote or oppose in California. The group routinely votes on resolutions pertaining to local problems, such as hazardous-waste disposal, and helps determine what will be discussed at the league’s annual state convention.

The mayor, visibly enraged by the insurrection, immediately vetoed the action and launched an assault of her own, likening Snow’s behavior to “Chicago-style” politics.

“I accuse you of unscrupulous political tactics,” blasted Doerr, who has represented the city at the league since she took office in 1981. “Whether or not I am the official delegate of this city. . . . I can continue attending the meetings.”

Snow, not to be outdone, moved to override the mayor, saying, “I am not going to tolerate a veto.” Snow said Doerr has not been attending meetings regularly and said she has occasionally voted against the direction of the City Council.

Records kept by the league show that Doerr has attended just two of its seven meetings this year. The last monthly meeting she attended, according to the records, was in April.

“The reason I am bringing this up is not retribution,” Snow said. “We as a council have adopted plans and directions and the mayor has not voted as directed.” As an example, he said Doerr did not vote in favor of a nuclear freeze during a league convention in San Diego several years ago, despite council endorsement of the freeze.

Doerr said in a interview that she did not vote for the freeze because she thought it was inappropriate for the league, a nonpartisan state lobbying group, to become involved in national political issues.

“It had become a political thing, Republican versus Democrat,” Doerr, a Republican, said of the freeze. Snow is a Democrat.

Decision Postponed

Snow was frustrated in his effort to have the last word Monday night, however, when his colleagues decided to consider the veto next week as part of a comprehensive review of mayoral and council committee assignments. Snow was not pleased with the decision, chiding the council for “prolonging the agony.”

The incident capped more than a month of political bickering and squabbling between Snow, the council’s senior member and unofficial ringleader, and Doerr, a mayor whom Snow and other council members worked unsuccessfully to defeat in her reelection bid last March.

In that election, Doerr turned back a challenge by Jerry Goddard, a two-term councilman who has since retired from the council. Goddard, a self-described friend of business and pro-growth forces in the city, was unable to unseat Doerr, who led a slate of candidates on a so-called slow-growth platform. While Doerr prevailed in the mayoral race, two of Goddard’s allies defeated candidates aligned with Doerr in the City Council elections in May.

As a result, Doerr has been left virtually isolated at council meetings and is constantly at odds with Snow, who has assumed the leadership role in Goddard’s absence. Snow makes no secret of the fact that he would prefer to be mayor, a post he says he intended to seek until Goddard announced his bid.

Suspicions Confirmed

The incident involving the League of California Cities also brought to public view a fact many at City Hall had suspected since May, when Snow swept to a decisive reelection victory in District 4: Snow has been working systematically to remove residents who had opposed his candidacy from city commissions, committees and boards.

Doerr accused Snow of having posted in his office a list of residents he intends to keep from serving on city panels. The list, she said, includes her.

Snow acknowledged the existence of the list, and even produced copies of it after the meeting. The list, actually a campaign brochure distributed by Val Dombrowski, Snow’s opponent in the May election, includes the names of city officials and residents who endorsed Dombrowski’s campaign. Doerr was one of them.

Snow declined to characterize the names as a hit list, describing it instead as “just a reminder of who your friends are and who your friends aren’t.” He openly admitted that he was working to keep people on the list from positions of influence in the city, calling the effort standard political practice.

‘I Would Have Been Out’

“If these people had won I would have been out,” Snow said. “What do you do, pat them on the head and say good boys?”

For weeks, the City Council, often following Snow’s direction, has declined to endorse several of Doerr’s appointments to the various advisory panels, which are made up of residents from each of the city’s five districts. As mayor, Doerr has the power of appointment. As council members, Snow and his four colleagues have the power of confirmation.

Last month, Doerr was so concerned about Snow’s effort to thwart her appointments that she asked City Atty. Gordon C. Phillips to render an opinion about the mayor pro tem’s power to make appointments in her absence. Doerr went on vacation in late July and she wanted to make sure that Snow--who served as mayor pro tem--would not attempt to make her appointments. Phillips ruled that Snow did not have the power of appointment as mayor pro tem.

As an example of Doerr’s frustration with the appointment process, the council last month refused to confirm her reappointment of Greg Diete to the influential Harbor Review Board, which considers development proposals and other issues involving King Harbor and makes recommendations to the council. Doerr nominated Diete, an outspoken critic of a proposal to build a hotel and sports complex on Harbor Drive, but the mayor was unable to muster even one vote from the council in favor of the reappointment. Diete was one of 27 names on the list in Snow’s office.

Opposed Inn Project

Much to the consternation of Snow and others on the council, Doerr has opposed the hotel and sports project, known as the Inn at King Harbor, since its inception several years ago. The council voted last month, over Doerr’s objection, to approve a development agreement with Marina Cove Ltd. for the project.

Doerr blasted the council when it rejected Diete’s appointment, accusing it of purging from city panels residents who do not reflect the council’s viewpoint. In an interview this week, the mayor said she has attempted to appoint residents from all political perspectives to boards. As examples, she pointed to her appointments of Randy Kimose to the Harbor Review Board and Mark Conte to the Recreation and Parks Commission. Both appointees have been supporters of Snow.

For the second week in a row, the council declined Monday night to confirm Doerr’s appointment of Engin Uralman to the Harbor Review Board. Uralman, a King Harbor boat owner who runs a preschool in Huntington Beach, was not on the Snow list but he was nominated by Doerr to replace Diete. The council said it needed more time to consider the application.

Doerr said after the meeting that she is prepared to fight next week for her positions on other local and county committees should the council consider removing her from those, too. In addition to the League of California Cities, Doerr serves as delegate to the Los Angeles County-City Selection Committee, the Southern California Rapid Transit District City Selection Committee, the Los Angeles County Sanitation District, the Beach Cities Committee and the Sister City Committee.