Local Elections : Fullerton’s Jet Decision Becomes No. 1 Election Issue

On Sept. 30, a month after the Aeromexico mid-air collision over Cerritos killed 82 people, more than 400 people crowded into Fullerton City Hall to oppose an ordinance to allow some small jets to use the Municipal Airport.

The anger and frustration expressed that evening over noisy, low-flying aircraft has turned into the leading issue in the Fullerton City Council race.

Eight candidates, including write-in candidate Carl R. Stevenson, are vying for two seats. Mayor A.B. (Buck) Catlin and Councilwoman Molly McClanahan are running for reelection.

Most of the two incumbents’ opponents said they are seeking the four-year job because the current council is unresponsive to their wishes. Many cited the council’s Sept. 30 decision to delete a no-jets clause in a city ordinance governing the airport.

When the ordinance was passed on a 4-1 vote, the members of the council who voted for it said they had no choice because of Federal Aviation Administration rules banning discrimination against any one type of aircraft.

Other issues in the Fullerton election include a plan to build a plaza with a giant-screen special effects theater that would be built by Canadian-based Imax Systems Corp. and privately operated. About $3 million in city money would be spent on the project.

Three of the eight candidates are 23 years old or younger. With the exception of the two incumbents, most concede that they have attended few council meetings. But all say their lack of experience in city government should be viewed as a refreshing bonus, not a hindrance.

Five of the candidates reported receiving less than $500 each in contributions as of Oct. 18, while Armand Almeida (Vic) Victoria reported receiving $2,407; McClanahan, $8,667, and Catlin, $9,313.

Here are the candidates:

A.B. (Buck) Catlin, 68, is the city’s mayor. Catlin has served in either an elected or appointed city position for 13 years. He has retired twice, first from the Navy after 25 years and then last year from his position as a professor in the Fullerton College electronics department. Catlin says Fullerton’s most important issue is “maintaining the quality of life in the city.” Items such as the airport and the Imax project are “sub-issues” that fall under a bigger-picture umbrella, he said.

David L. Cohen, 22, is the owner of an entertainment management agency called Triad Management Corp. and is running--along with his brother, Joseph--in his first council race. He is a UCLA fifth-year senior in psychology and a Fullerton native. Cohen said he would like to see Fullerton increase the diversity of its businesses to give the city’s youth different types of employment opportunities. Cohen said the city has a surplus of restaurants and fast-food establishments, giving young people little option when they are searching for a job. “Everybody that I know is either a waiter or a waitress,” he said.

Joseph M. Cohen, 23, is the owner of the Bayside Cafe in Newport Beach. Like his brother, David, Joseph emphasizes his youth as a plus in the campaign. And like his brother, he complains about an unresponsive City Council, citing the airport issue as an example. Asked about other issues, Cohen said he supports the Imax project--which would be geared for educational programming--but does not think it will succeed if only educational movies are shown. “The material could vary from week to week,” he said. Cohen said his campaigning has been mostly limited to dinner parties. But less than two weeks before elections, he said: “We’re all finished with our campaigning.”

Jerry L. Conrey, 23, is a manager for a May Co. department store and is seeking his first elected post. A student at Cal State Fullerton, Conrey expects to receive a degree in political science with emphasis on public administration next June. Conrey said he decided to run for City Council after the city’s decision last year to have fraternities and sororities apply for conditional use permits. A former treasurer with the Inter-Fraternity Council and former president of Sigma Alpha Mu fraternity, Conrey said the council “walked into the room with their minds made up without hearing what anybody had to say.” A more recent example of the same attitude, Conrey said, was the vote to allow small jets at the Fullerton airport.

Rafael Hernandez, 45, is a computer technician specialist who has lived in Fullerton since 1977. A Cuban native who left his country and job as a schoolteacher in 1974, Hernandez is seeking his first elected position because “this country did a lot for me, and I want to give something back.” Hernandez said he wants to make Fullerton “a drug-free city” and believes that eliminating drugs is the “number one priority.” He also emphasized creating housing for the elderly. He said in his campaign statement that he supports Proposition 64, the controversial AIDS initiative sponsored by political extremist Lyndon H. LaRouche Jr.

Molly McClanahan, 49, is seeking her second term on the council. She is the director of the YMCA Anaheim Youth Employment Service and a resident of Fullerton for 20 years. As a council member, she has voted against the Imax project, saying public money should not subsidize a private project, and has urged the restoration of the Fox Theatre--”a real treasure and a jewel in the community.” If she is elected to a second term, McClanahan said, one of her top priorities would be to implement a citywide neighborhood earthquake preparedness program.

Carl R. Stevenson, 35, is an engineer with Rockwell International who decided to run as a write-in candidate after the city council’s recent vote on the airport ordinance. Although city officials said the new ordinance actually has created more noise and weight restrictions on planes using the airport, Stevenson and other residents have protested that officials have opened the door to the potential for larger jets and possibly to tragedies reminiscent of the recent crash over Cerritos. In other issues, Stevenson said he wants to limit city growth, restrict street-widening projects and abandon the Imax project.

Armand Almeida (Vic) Victoria, 57, is owner of Victoria Insurance Associates, a former member of a city redevelopment committee and a former Chamber of Commerce board member. If elected, Victoria said, he will work to “get the city government out of the free enterprise, free market area.” For example, Victoria opposes city involvement in the Imax project and would like to cancel city-sponsored classes such as aerobics and English, saying that’s what “we have free enterprise for.”