New Councilman Keeps Word : Calls for Firing City Manager

Minutes after he was sworn in as Anaheim’s newest City Council member, William D. Ehrle called Tuesday for the firing of City Manager William O. Talley, but city law prevented the council from voting on the matter so soon after the election.

However, the real fireworks flew later in the meeting when one of Ehrle’s most ardent supporters, Councilman Fred Hunter, tried to remove Ehrle’s chief opponent in the council election from the Planning Commission post she has held for 12 years.

First Meeting Since Election

Hunter charged that Charlene La Claire had improperly received campaign contributions and that her credibility was in question because of “dirty smear tactics” during the campaign. However, the council could not vote on La Claire’s removal without waiving the state’s open-meetings law and postponed the matter for one week.

Tuesday was the first meeting of the five-member City Council since the bitter June 2 election in which Ehrle beat La Claire. During the campaign, Mayor Ben Bay and Councilman Hunter backed Ehrle, while Mayor Pro Tem Miriam Kaywood and Councilman Irv Pickler campaigned for La Claire.

In his speech immediately after being sworn in as councilman, Ehrle said he had “made promises” during his campaign, adding, “Bill Ehrle will never back down on a promise.”

It was “in that spirit,” he said, that his first action as councilman would be to “bring notice to terminate the city manager’s contract”--a move he had promised during his council campaign. During the campaign, he charged that Talley had mishandled city litigation and personnel.

“I will live by what I said during the campaign, and I have just begun,” said Ehrle.

Hunter quickly seconded Ehrle’s motion, although he added that he realized the action was “premature.” Bay--who has been one of the city manager’s biggest critics but who has not said whether he would vote to fire Talley--ruled Ehrle’s motion out of order.

Under the Anaheim City Charter, the city manager cannot be removed from office until at least 90 days after the election of a City Council member. In addition, the council must give the city manager 30 days’ notice under the charter.

Hunter said later that he plans to move to fire Talley in 60 days.

When the matter comes to a vote, Kaywood is expected to back Talley. During a council recess Tuesday she called herself “very supportive” of the city manager, saying he is “highly regarded” throughout the state and nation and that he was being made a “scapegoat.”

‘Right Way and Wrong Way’

Pickler said he does not know how he will vote on Talley’s contract but added that, under the city manager’s leadership, “we’re the envy of other cities in the county, in the state and the country.” Further, he said, Talley’s “dignity is important, and our dignity is important. . . . There’s a right way and a wrong way of doing these things.”

Pickler said during the recess that he was “a little disillusioned” by Ehrle’s quick move, but added that “he made a promise; he’s fulfilled it. Now maybe he’ll settle down . . . and I’m hoping he’ll be a team player.”

But while the council discord was simmering during Ehrle’s first action as a councilman, it boiled over a few hours later, when Hunter called for La Claire’s ouster from the Planning Commission.

Ehrle beat La Claire on June 2 by 8,556 votes to 4,899. Ten other candidates also were on the ballot.

Although La Claire’s Planning Commission term is due to expire at the end of the month, Hunter said her immediate removal was necessary because she had improperly received excessive campaign contributions from developers.

Under the state government code, a planning commissioner is not supposed to receive more than $250 from a single contributor, he said. La Claire, he said, received $1,000 or more from each of several campaign supporters.

Conflict of Interest Claimed

“Her abilities to serve have been substantially impaired” by the contributions, he said. Hunter said conflict-of-interest problems would be posed if La Claire were to vote on projects proposed by the contributors and said he believes she already has done so, during commission meetings while the campaign was under way. He did not have documentation.

In addition, he said, La Claire “for the first time in the history of Anaheim . . . has politicized the Planning Commission” by encouraging fellow commissioners to endorse her and including their unanimous backing on campaign literature. Furthermore, her credibility has been undermined “as an individual and as a planning commissioner” by her campaign tactics, he said.

The mayor immediately seconded Hunter’s motion to remove La Claire, but the city attorney said that, under the Brown Act, a motion has to appear on a public agenda unless it is found to be an emergency. In such cases, the open-meetings law can be waived with a four-fifths vote. Bay then moved to waive the Brown Act but later withdrew the motion and instead opted to delay the matter until next week’s meeting, when it could appear on the agenda. It was obvious that Pickler and Kaywood would not vote to override the Brown Act.

“Vindictiveness is not something we need at this time,” Pickler told Hunter. “This is what I was hoping to avoid, to make somebody a scapegoat.” He said it was apparent that Hunter, Bay and Ehrle were joining together as a faction.

Opposed Ehrle Appointment

Hunter angrily replied that Pickler and Kaywood were responsible for the city taxpayers’ having to spend $75,000 on the special election. “You owe an apology to the City of Anaheim,” he told his colleagues.

Kaywood and Pickler opposed the appointment of Ehrle to the council seat he won June 2. It was vacated in January by former Mayor Don R. Roth, who was elected last November to the Orange County Board of Supervisors.

City Atty. Jack L. White said he would have to research Hunter’s charges about campaign contributions. He said the Political Reform Act prohibits public officials from voting on matters if they have received more than $250 from the sponsors. Higher amounts can be received if the donations are made to campaign committees, he said.

However, he said, “special rules” apply to members of boards and commissions. “So she is in a different position from Mr. Ehrle” in accepting campaign contributions, he said.

Contacted later, La Claire, who was not at the council meeting, said she was not surprised by the attempt to remove her.

“The reason they want to remove me is that they want to reward their friends with office and punish their enemies,” La Claire said.

‘Extremely Careful’

She denied all of Hunter’s charges. It is “untrue” that she improperly received contributions, she said. “I have been extremely careful not to accept money where I had votes on projects. I have been very very careful to not violate the state law.”

Regarding her endorsement by other planning commissioners, she said past council candidates have regularly received such backing. As for the last charge regarding her campaign tactics, she said her credibility is intact.

“Everything I said was absolutely true, so I don’t see how my credibility was undermined. On the other hand, everything they said was not true . . . such as the three charges he (Hunter) made today,” she said.

During the campaign, there was talk that Ehrle, Hunter and Bay would remove all seven planning commissioners, she said. At Monday’s Planning Commission meeting, all the commissioners reportedly said their goodbys.

The term of one other commissioner, Glenn Fry, expires June 30, as does La Claire’s. One term expires in 1988, two in 1989 and two more in 1990, according to the city clerk’s office.

Ovation at Swearing In

Ehrle, 44, was sworn in Tuesday morning in the council chambers before about 150 people who gave the new councilman a standing ovation. He said he was proud of the way he ran an “ethical campaign” and invited the people “to bring the city back together again.” He pledged to balance the budget, restore morale and unity, resolve pending litigation--apparently referring to lawsuits by the California Angels and city employees--and bring about “a change in city management.”

City Manager Talley said he was not surprised by Ehrle’s call for his firing. Asked if he planned to resign before the 90 days were up, he said only that he intends to “observe the provisions of the charter.”

Talley’s contract prohibits him from seeking employment elsewhere without giving the council six months’ notice. Asked if he planned to give the council notice, so that he could begin looking for another job, he replied: “I make it a practice not to discuss my personal plans with the press before I discuss them with the council.”

The mayor said he was not disheartened by the first meeting of the full council.

The council will work together “once the dust settles, and it doesn’t settle that quickly,” Bay said.