Charges, Countercharges May Have Increased Turnout : As Elections Go in Buena Park, This One Was a Doozy

City Council elections in Buena Park are typically uneventful.

In the 1970s, the small tourist-oriented town of about 65,000 had some controversy over the X-rated movie “Deep Throat.” And in the 1960s the town had a recall election, which no one much remembers now, not even the wife of a candidate in that race. It is a city where officials are hard-pressed to come up with burning issues.

“Major issue? I don’t think there’s any major issue,” said Councilman Kenneth B. Jones, who came in first with 1,893 votes during Tuesday’s council election to secure his reelection bid. In addition to Jones, the winners were Rhonda J. McCune, with 1,413 votes, and Donna L. Chessen, with 1,148.

No Hot Potatoes

Mayor Pro Tem Don Griffin agreed that the usual atmosphere in the city, recently nominated for a national All-America City award, is one of calm.

“I don’t know of any hot potatoes,” he said.

But this year, less than one week before Tuesday’s council election, one candidate was charged by the district attorney’s office with lying about his place of residence on both his voter registration and his candidacy documents.

Steve A. Grasha, who faces three counts of perjury and one count of filing false nomination documents, subsequently pleaded not guilty to all of the charges. He said he has lived in Buena Park for the last eight years except for two months when he lived in Fullerton while trying to find another home in Buena Park.

Wednesday, Grasha blamed his 7th-place showing in the election on publicity about the felony charges, which he said were politically motivated.

Grasha had accused Mayor James Jarrell--who is retiring and did not seek reelection--and Police Chief Robert Reber, who asked the district attorney’s office to investigate Grasha’s residence claim, of political shenanigans.

Grasha pointed to a 1976 incident in which the mayor’s son, Douglas Jarrell, who also ran for one of three vacant council seats, shot William Hosea. Saying they were both juveniles at the time, Chief Reber declined to talk about the case, as did Douglas Jarrell and Hosea.

‘Swept Under the Rug’

Grasha, an observer of City Council meetings, said the incident was “swept under the rug.” The younger Jarrell called Grasha’s allegations “mudslinging” and questioned why Grasha brought attention to the issue now when “he’s known about the whole situation for a long time.”

“He’s just upset because he’s in trouble now,” the younger Jarrell said. Of the 14 council candidates, Jarrell came in last with a tally of 256 votes.

While some voters said the accusations did not affect their ballots, others said they did.

“If he’d lie about his residence,” said Eileen Hedgecock, 59, “he’d lie about other things. . . . I first thought it might be good to have somebody a little bit young (Grasha)--but then I changed my mind. Then that deal with the mayor’s son being hushed up.” Hedgecock, a resident of the city for 29 years whose husband ran for a council seat during a recall move in the 1960s, said she didn’t vote for either Grasha or Jarrell.

‘Doesn’t Matter to Me’

Although the felony charges cost Grasha Hedgecock’s vote, they did not influence resident Linda Belardes or her husband.

“It doesn’t matter to me if he lived in Fullerton. It’s none of my business,” said Linda Belardes, 27. At her home at the corner of Camellia Avenue and Poinsettia Drive, a bright, blue-and-orange “Elect Grasha Councilman” sign was displayed Tuesday. It was one of several pro-Grasha signs dotting the area.

Marillyn Williams, a volunteer at the polls in the Maple Pendleton Elementary School, said Tuesday that the hoopla surrounding Grasha and Jarrell was bringing more voters to the polls. “They’re just showing up, and we weren’t anticipating that they would.”

Although an exact count of voters was not available Wednesday, city officials said it appeared that the turnout was higher than the usual 10% of the 30,677 registered voters.

But not everyone attributed the apparent increase to the last-minute controversy.

Chamber of Commerce President Patsy Marshall said that this year was the first in which a Buena Park city election was consolidated with a school district election. Chessen, one of the three council winners, said several of the candidates “walked districts” and helped increase voter turnout.