Ehrle, 5 Others Lose on 2-2 Votes : Anaheim Council Deadlocks on Filling Vacancy

An Anaheim City Council meeting turned into a battleground Tuesday as members quarreled among themselves and the mayor threatened at one point to call the mayor pro tem out of order.

After the volatile meeting, the four-member council was no closer than when it began to completing the task at hand: appointing a fifth council member to fill the seat left vacant by Don Roth’s election to the Orange County Board of Supervisors.

Council members said it does not appear likely that the council will break its 2-2 deadlock on who should be appointed, which means Anaheim appears destined for a special election.

Mayor Ben Bay and Councilman Fred Hunter want to appoint businessman William D. Ehrle, 44, to the vacant seat. Pointing to Ehrle’s showing in the Nov. 4 race for three council seats, when he came in fourth in a field of 14, Hunter said Ehrle’s 21,662 votes are “a mandate of the people.”

Mayor Pro Tem Miriam Kaywood and Councilman Irv Pickler maintained just as strongly that Ehrle is not the right person for the job. They label Ehrle a “special-interest” candidate, and on Tuesday they nominated five other candidates. One by one, the council rejected each candidate on a 2-2 vote.

Ehrle’s supporters brought in 7,242 form letters that they said contained 11,546 signatures of Anaheim voters who supported him. About 40,000 of the form letters, which included stamped, pre-addressed envelopes, had been sent to registered voters by a group called the Anaheim Coalition of Taxpayers.

Hunter also read excerpts from letters sent by various groups, including one from the Anaheim Municipal Employees Assn., that supported Ehrle. And Bay backed Hunter’s nomination of Ehrle, saying, “that’s the answer to the problem.”

The only speaker from the audience who spoke against Ehrle was Anaheim resident Fred W. Brown Jr., 39, owner of a manufacturing business and a former council candidate. During one of the most heated moments of the meeting, Brown read a prepared statement questioning the mayor’s motive for supporting Ehrle and Ehrle’s ability to serve on the council.

Brown said that Bay told him in a phone conversation after the Nov. 4 election that he would do everything in his power to get Ehrle appointed, or, if that failed, to help him win the special election.

“His people (Ehrle’s campaign) had assisted you in your election,” Brown read from his statement. “This appointment is one of political convenience--a campaign debt, if you will.”

Bay said during a break in the meeting that there were no promises made before or after the election. There was “cooperation” during the election campaign between Ehrle and himself, Bay said, as there was “cooperation between many people.”

“There’s nothing unusual about that,” Bay said.

Ehrle said in an interview that he and Bay had some of the same supporters and some of their signs were placed in the same spots. Asked to respond to Brown’s allegation, Ehrle said that there were “absolutely no promises.”

Brown also caused a stir in the council chamber when he said that Ehrle “has experienced mental problems in the past.”

Ehrle’s Mother Speaks

After he completed his address, an older woman approached the podium and in a broken voice said: “I am Bill Ehrle’s mother. I have known him for 44 years. I reject what the gentleman said.”

Tillie Ehrle said that her son “has a hole in his heart” and has “had the best doctors.”

“He is not mentally ill,” she said. “I want that mentally taken off the records.”

Ehrle, who did not address the council, said during a break in the meeting that he took “strong exception to Mr. Brown’s comments.”

“People have known for years that I have a congenital heart defect. It’s not even an issue. He’s trying to make it into an issue,” Ehrle said. “I won’t run that kind of a campaign. I’ll run a very positive campaign.”

Ehrle said Tuesday night that in 1981 he took a medical leave from his job with the Santa Ana Unified School District because of high blood pressure. He added: “I have never had a mental problem. I have had a congenital heart defect since birth.”

Doubts Qualifications

After the meeting, Brown said, “I have a great deal of respect for Mr. Ehrle and his desire to serve, but I do not believe he is qualified.”

Brown, who unsuccessfully ran for City Council in 1978 and in 1982, said he is not vying for the open seat and is not aligned with any candidate or group. He said he was prompted to address the council by a form letter last week asking him to urge the council to appoint Ehrle.

One of several related issues raised Tuesday was whether there was a precedent in the city for appointing a runner-up in an election. During a previous meeting, Bay said there was. On Tuesday, Kaywood wanted to get it on the record that there was not.

In fact, the opposite was true, she said, citing as one example Bay’s appointment to the council in 1979. Bay had not run for office in the 1978 race, in which Brown “came in as runner-up.”

Hunter cut off Kaywood’s remarks by saying that they were “derogatory.”

Bay said: “I don’t want to get into a debate with you on the political history of this city. There will be plenty of time for that.” Bay said he had corrected himself on the question of precedence previously.

Additional Nominations

When Kaywood insisted that she wanted the mayor to answer whether the council was going to follow the precedent of not appointing a runner-up, Bay snapped, “I’m going to rule you out of order in a minute.”

These were the nominees other than Ehrle who were rejected on 2-2 votes:

- Jim Riley, a 32-year resident of the city and its former fire chief.

- Joanne Stanton, a member of the Anaheim Union High School District Board of Trustees.

- Tom Daly, a member of the Anaheim Union High School District Board of Trustees.

- William Taormina, owner of Anaheim Disposal Inc. and the new Billy’s Service Station.

- Leonard Lawicki, a city planning commissioner and Realtor.

Another Anaheim resident, Rick Vaught, a Realtor, nominated himself in an address to the council.

If the council cannot decide on an appointment within 60 days of Jan. 1--the first day Roth officially went off the council--the city will have a special election June 2, City Clerk Lee Sohl said.

The council is scheduled to discuss the issue further during its Jan. 27 meeting, since one of its members, Pickler, does not expect to be at next Tuesday’s meeting. The council, in one show of unanimity, has agreed not to vote on an appointment unless all four members are present.