OK of Airport Jets Prompts Candidacy for City Council

A Fullerton resident, angered by this week’s City Council action to allow small jets at the municipal airport, filed papers Friday to run as a write-in candidate in November’s City Council elections.

Carl Stevenson, 35, said that in addition to his write-in campaign, he and a group of residents will begin working this weekend on a referendum drive to put the jets issue before the electorate.

The council voted 4 to 1 early Wednesday morning to delete the no-jets clause in a city ordinance governing the Fullerton Municipal Airport. The Federal Aviation Administration has told the city that the clause might be discriminatory, creating the risk of possible lawsuits and loss of FAA grants.

The decision came over the protests of airport area residents, who said they already suffer from noise and low-flying aircraft. They fear the amended ordinance will increase the risk of plane crashes and make property values plunge, they told the council.

But the airport’s manager has said weight, noise and runway length restrictions will, in effect, limit the jets to just one type, the Citation I.

Stevenson said about a dozen residents who gathered at his house Thursday night considered a campaign to recall council members but decided on the referendum instead, in an effort to reverse the decision rather than remove the people who made it.

“A referendum would take the matter out of the hands of the council and put it into the hands of the people,” Stevenson said.

To qualify a referendum for the ballot, Stevenson’s group will have to collect signatures of 10% of the registered voters, who number about 56,600, a spokeswoman for the city clerk’s office said.

Stevenson said his group will begin drafting the referendum petition this weekend. He hopes to have the papers approved by the city clerk and ready for signature-gathering by the end of next week, he said. If the effort succeeds, the City Council would set a date for the issue to go to the voters.

While running his write-in campaign in the council race, Stevenson said, he will work against the re-election of Mayor Alan B. (Buck) Catlin and Councilwoman Molly McClanahan, who voted to delete the no-jets clause. The other two assenting council members, Richard C. Ackerman and Linda LeQuire, are in the middle of their council terms.

Catlin and McClanahan could not be reached for comment Friday afternoon.

Also running for a seat on the council are Rafael Hernandez, Armand Almeida (Vic) Victoria, Jerry L. Conrey, Joseph M. Cohen and David L. Cohen.