Local Elections : Two present council members, one of whom is also seeking reelection, are vying for mayor : Fourteen candidates are competing for three seats on the five-member City Council : Angels-Anaheim Suit Is Big Issue in City Council and Mayoral Races

Fourteen candidates, including three incumbents, are running for three open seats on the Anaheim City Council in Tuesday’s election, and two council members--including one incumbent running for reelection--are vying for the mayor’s job in Orange County’s largest city.

For several of the candidates, the battle has been an expensive one, with the likes of Disneyland, the Disneyland Hotel, major outdoor billboard agencies, the Los Angeles Rams football team and the parent company of the California Angels baseball club contributing to campaigns.

This Sunday, newspaper ads are to feature Angels owner Gene Autry endorsing Mayor Don R. Roth for county supervisor and candidate Fred Hunter for City Council. Autry has never supported a council or county candidate “to this extent,” Angels Vice President Mike Schreter said Friday, but this year “we think it’s time for a change.”

In interviews with the candidates, nearly every one raised as an election issue the Angels legal battle with Anaheim over who has control of the Anaheim Stadium parking lot. Most criticized the city for not settling the dispute, which has cost Anaheim more than $5 million.

The Anaheim races have been expensive this year.

As of Oct. 30, Mayor Pro Tem Irv Pickler, who is seeking to replace Roth as mayor, reported receiving $80,869 in campaign contributions. His opponent, Councilman Ben Bay, reported receiving $64,585 as of Oct. 18.

In the council races, these campaign contribution totals have been reported in disclosure statements for the period ending Oct. 18: Councilman E. Llewellyn Overholt Jr., $44,898; Councilwoman Miriam Kaywood, $31,247; William D. (Bill) Ehrle, $94,785; Fred Hunter, $54,811, and Charlene La Claire, $26,187. The other candidates have received and spent less than $500 on their campaigns thus far.

Here are the candidates:

Melvin A. Aguilar, 29, is making his third bid for a seat on the council. An assistant pastor at Set Free Christian Fellowship in Anaheim, Aguilar said “God has called me” to lead people. Unlike many of the other candidates, Aguilar is a common sight at City Hall, where he regularly attends the weekly City Council meetings. Aguilar, whose family has been in Anaheim more than 60 years, emphasizes “going back to the citizens.” He said one of his first tasks if elected will be meeting with city personnel, “from interns to department heads.”

Ben Bay, 60, is running for mayor. Bay is an Anaheim councilman whose term will end in 1988. He was appointed in 1979, elected the following year and re-elected in 1984. Bay said the key issue is “how to maintain the quality of life in Anaheim.” Bay has been a constant critic of his colleagues’ approval of city budgets and management contracts. “I felt strongly that the current council majority has not been tough enough on handling taxpayer money. It’s been my feeling all along we could have done more things for the city, if there wasn’t so much money spent on what I consider unnecessary government functions and bureaucracy in general.”

Gustave E. Bode, 62, describes himself as a “jack-of-all-trades.” He’s done it all, he said, from running the old “Fun Bus” around the perimeter of Disneyland, to driving a milk truck for 20 years, to operating a movie projector. If elected to the council, Bode said, he will concentrate on housing for the elderly and needy and look at the cost to the city of “small items”--such as paper towels in public restrooms, which could be replaced with air dryers--because “you take small items and add them up, and they become a big item.”

Jerry Cook, 43, looks at the City Council and sees a group of people who have been in power too long. “I feel we have a powerful political machine,” Cook said. “I’m not saying they’re incompetent. I think we can do better. And we need to have different people in there so they don’t become entrenched.” Cook is the owner of a wholesale car lot and an Anaheim resident for 10 years. He emphasizes a separation between private enterprise and city government, calling the city’s move last summer to lend its power of condemnation to a private developer to acquire part of a strawberry farm “ridiculous.”

Loisalene M. Dunleavy, 55, is a Chicago native who moved to Anaheim five years ago. Dunleavy, who is retired, said she decided to run for council after the city voted this summer to take part of a strawberry farm, belonging to the Fujishige family of Anaheim, to make way for access roads needed for an adjacent development project. “I just don’t like what they did to that family,” she said. “I think what’s yours is yours and you should be able to keep it.”

William D. (Bill) Ehrle, 44, is owner of a production company specializing in educational programs, an Anaheim native, former member of the county Human Services Advisory Commission and chairman of the county’s U.S. Savings Bonds Campaign since 1979. Ehrle said the biggest problem facing Anaheim is “the deficit spending philosophy of the incumbent council people.” That philosophy, he said, is “let’s spend it now and let’s worry about how we’re going to pay it later.” Ehrle accuses the city of doing a poor job with redevelopment of its downtown--”they have done a masterful job of tearing down the city without a genuine plan to build it”--and in its handling of the Angels lawsuit.

Manny R. Hernandez, 55, is a maintenance engineer who said he wants to put some of the law school years behind him to use in Anaheim. Hernandez said he would like Anaheim to have its own courthouse so that residents won’t be forced to go to Santa Ana or elsewhere to clear tickets and such matters. Hernandez stressed building a stronger Police Department, ending the Angels’ litigation and bringing different industries to the city. The Arizona native said he also would like to change the time of council meetings from all day Tuesday to nighttime or Saturday meetings to give more residents a chance to attend them.

Fred Hunter, 44, is a lawyer, a resident for 21 years and a former police officer in the city. Of the 14 candidates, Hunter has netted the most diverse support from groups such as police, firefighters, municipal employees and electrical workers. Hunter, who ran unsuccessfully for the council two years ago, said he started campaigning in June, has more than 200 volunteers and does not plan to lose again. In his campaign, Hunter has stressed what he calls a lack of leadership as the main issue. If elected, Hunter said, he will vote not to renew City Manager William O. Talley’s contract.

Miriam Kaywood, 63, is running for her fourth term on the council. “I have a complete dedication to Anaheim.,” she said. “I love this city. And I want to do everything I can for it. And I have put in so much hard work, I just can’t walk away.” Kaywood said she gave 13 years of service to the community before her tenure on the council began and she is now a member of an array of local and county groups. Kaywood said that continuing issues in Anaheim are regulating density and dealing with traffic and transportation problems. She said she is proud that Anaheim “runs like a private corporation” and plans to continue prudent business practices.

Charlene La Claire, 48, has been a city planning commissioner 11 years. She said she was prompted to run for her first elected post because of “the tremendous lack of leadership.” Echoing Ehrle and Hunter, she said the council has “relinquished its power to the city manager’s office.” Programs recommended by Talley and adopted by the council have caused a low morale program among employees, she said. La Claire is a business consultant working on her doctorate in marriage and family therapy. She said the city should have a drug policy and should not allow gas station mini-markets to sell alcoholic beverages because it sends out a message that drinking and driving is OK.

Tony Mangiamelli, 69, wants the senior citizens “taken care of.” Affordable housing for the elderly and rent control in mobile home parks are top priorities, the mobile home resident said. “It’s getting rough,” he said. “Do we want them all in convalescent homes--is that what we want? We have to take care of our moms and our dads.” Mangiamelli said he has lived in Anaheim about 10 years and is a World War II veteran. A self-employed legal researcher, he also is a full-time student at Fullerton College, where he takes marketing and business law classes. Mangiamelli said he is also concerned about drug use and would form committees where youngsters could report on others using drugs and “act as police, so to speak.”

Frank Monnig Jr., 37, has lived in Anaheim about 20 years, but his former garage business has kept him busy and without time to run for office. Now, as general manager of an art store, he is making his first bid for elected office. Monnig said he is against high-rise structures proposed on part of the Anaheim Stadium parking lot and said the lawsuit prompted by the development proposal should have been resolved long ago. The candidate said he would like city parks to close by 10 p.m. to rid the areas of transients and would like the city to move faster with its rehabilitation of downtown Anaheim, which he called “a disgrace.”

E. Llewellyn Overholt Jr., 59, is running for his third term on the council. “My candidacy is a candidacy of someone who has been deeply involved in the community of Anaheim for almost 30 years,” said Overholt, a member of various committees and a former trustee of the Anaheim City School District. Responding to criticism of the city’s handling of the Angels lawsuit, Overholt said: “It’s very easy to criticize when you don’t know anything about it. . . . I don’t know of a member of the City Council who doesn’t have the utmost appreciation of Gene Autry.” Overholt said that settlement of the Angels suit, expansion of the Convention Center and improvement of the city’s traffic system are some of the high priority items during the next four years.

Irv Pickler, 65, is running in two races. The city’s mayor pro tem is up for reelection to the council and also is running for mayor. Pickler has served 4 1/2 years on the council and is a former county planning commissioner and a former Anaheim Union High School District board member. Pickler said the main issues in the city are crime and maintaining good police protection, improving relations with city employees, dealing with traffic problems and resolving the Angels litigation. Pickler calls himself a councilman who is always available, “always willing to listen.”

Louis Robert Pradetto, 23, is a senior at Cal State Fullerton majoring in history who said he decided to run for office because the current council “is not really responding to what the taxpayers want.” Pradetto said he would like to eliminate certain fines, such as those levied on people who leave their cars parked during street-cleaning days, and would like to reduce, if not eliminate, parking fees at Anaheim Stadium for the locals.