Vista Picks Tracy to Fill Neal’s Seat on Council

The City Council on Friday appointed local real estate broker Lloyd Tracy to replace former Councilman Ed Neal, who resigned last month as part of a plea bargain following charges that he falsified city travel vouchers.

Tracy, who served on the Vista council between 1973 and 1980 and was mayor for two years of his tenure, will be sworn in at the council’s regular meeting Monday night. He will serve until November, when Neal’s term expires.

“The first thing I’ve got to do is a lot of homework,” said Tracy, 64, when asked what he hoped to accomplish during his six-month stint in office. “I’ve been out of city government for quite a while now, and I need to get reacquainted with the issues before I make any assessments of my goals.”

Tracy, a former insurance man who now owns Santa Fe Realty, conceded that “there are limits to what I can do, because it’s only six months,” but noted that he hopes to “be of some use to the people of Vista in this interim period.”

The council’s unanimous action came during a special meeting at city hall. During the past two weeks, officials interviewed several candidates for the post and decided they would name an interim colleague who would pledge not to run for the seat in November.

When Friday’s session began, there were 17 possible candidates under consideration, ranging from political veterans to local residents with virtually no experience as elected representatives. Members quickly narrowed the field to three--Tracy, Dan Carr and Jeff Baker--and then to two when it was learned that Carr was not interested in the job.

After a secret ballot, Tracy, a 23-year resident of Vista who is described as affable and easy to work with, was proclaimed the appointee.

Council members were clearly relieved to be back up to full strength and past the stormy era brought on by Neal’s legal troubles.

“This is great,” Councilwoman Gloria McClellan said after the vote. “Now we can get back to business.”

Neal, who owns a construction management business and was elected to the council in April, 1982, resigned from office April 17 as part of a plea bargain arranged by his lawyer and the district attorney’s office. The 46-year-old Neal had been charged with three felony misappropriation counts after allegedly billing the city for his girlfriend’s meals and air fare for a trip the couple took to Washington in June, 1985.

Under the plea bargain, Neal agreed to plead guilty to one count, which was reduced to a misdemeanor, while the other two were dismissed. Superior Court Judge Richard Huffman also placed Neal on three years’ probation, fined him $1,000 and ordered him to perform 200 hours of community service.

Neal, who maintains his innocence today, is barred from seeking any public office during probation.