Garden Grove Mayor’s Election Nearing

The city’s recent bailout of a towering pink hotel and the overall issue of redevelopment of the downtown’s aging, cluttered business district are the prime issues in Garden Grove’s special mayoral election, a campaign heavy with rhetoric but scant on specific proposals.

Of the eight mayoral candidates in the winner-take-all election next Tuesday, three hold seats on the City Council. The remaining five challengers all strum the same theme: that the City Council has given too much to certain business and has ignored the public will.

Named to Judgeship

The election became necessary when former Mayor Jonathan H. Cannon was appointed by the governor to a new West Municipal Court judgeship in August and the remaining four council members were unable to agree on a replacement to complete Cannon’s two-year term.

Cannon, who was first elected to the council in 1978, had been mayor since 1980. He won reelection in easy races in 1982, 1984 and again in 1986, a year after switching to the Republican Party, following 10 years as a registered Democrat.

The former mayor has not endorsed any of the eight candidates, but he predicted that the election’s outcome would have little effect on the direction of the city.

“I just don’t see the basic makeup of the council changing, especially if one of the present councilmen wins. It will still be the same four people on the council,” Cannon said.

The leading candidates are Councilmen Milton Krieger, W.E. (Walt) Donovan and Robert F. Dinsen. If one of them wins, and the new mayor and the remaining three council members cannot agree on appointing another council member within 30 days, another special election would be required in April to fill the winner’s unexpired term.

Former Mayor J. Tilman Williams, 62, is also counted as one of the favorites to return to the post he held in 1976-78.

Perhaps the most outspoken of the eight candidates, Williams said he decided to run mainly because the council was unable to appoint a successor to Cannon, thus forcing the city to spend up to $60,000 on the special election.

‘Prima Donnas’

“The prima donnas on the council couldn’t appoint a mayor,” Williams said. “They couldn’t make a choice, and there were a lot of good people out there who could have served as mayor for one year.”

The other four candidates include John (Gus) Modaffari, who was on the city Planning Commission for eight years before resigning last year; businessman Malcolm R. Fisher; businesswoman Karen Tracy Moreland, and Steven Childres.

The challengers, including Williams, are focusing their campaign criticisms on what they call “give-away” programs, such as the city’s involvement in last year’s building of the Princess Alicante Hotel, a 17-story, 400-room facility not far from Disneyland.

Century City-based Princess Cruises Resorts & Hotels was the first initial operator of the $51-million hotel. But the city initially plowed in about $8 million, including the land on which the hotel sits. In return, the city was to share in an unspecified amount of profits for 10 years.

Princess Cruises, which does not usually manage hotels, was unable to make a profit and three months ago turned management of the hotel over to the Chicago-based Hyatt Corp., which has changed the name to the Hyatt Regency Alicante.

With that management arrangement came a $2-million bailout loan from the Garden Grove Redevelopment Agency and another $250,000 to refurbish parts of the hotel. In return, the agency will receive a 5% interest in the hotel.

Only Dinsen, a 70-year-old retired building contractor who has been on the council since 1980, opposed building the hotel. He also opposed the $2-million loan to the Hyatt Corp.

“I voted against it when we constructed it and when it changed hands because I thought the taxpayers should not pay for any part of it,” Dinsen said. “I just don’t know where that $2-million (bailout loan) went.”

Donovan, who was on the council for 11 of the last 15 years, said the hotel is expected to generate $600,000 in property taxes and perhaps another $400,000 in occupancy tax. He contended that bond money was used to subsidize the hotel, not taxpayer dollars, as Williams and Dinsen and some other challengers say.

‘Nothing to It’

“The so-called tax-fighters are wrong. That is ridiculous because we can’t raise taxes without voter approval. It’s a nice slogan, but there is nothing to it,” said Donovan, a 61-year-old retired Southern California Edison executive.

Krieger, who has been on the council for 13 consecutive years, is an unabashed proponent of redevelopment. That, he said, is the proper way to revitalize Garden Grove, one of Orange County’s older communities, which has about 135,000 residents.

“This is an older community, and we have to revitalize (it),” he said. “We’ve used the tool of redevelopment, and it’s a darn good tool. The question here is, what do you do for business? Redevelopment is healthy business. It’s more taxes by minding the store.”

Krieger said that by enticing businesses to move to Garden Grove, the city’s tax base grows and its residents are protected from tax increases.

Krieger, a 52-year-old redevelopment expert who provides consulting services to other cities, defended the Alicante hotel project, which he said has “been an issue in a very positive manner. It’s one of the greatest things we’ve ever done.”

The occupancy tax from the hotel has increased from $18,000 a month to almost $39,000 a month since Hyatt assumed control, he said.

‘Going to Make Money’

“Instead of seeing a major hotel empty, we’ve seen it turn around,” Krieger said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if they tried to buy our 5% back. We’re going to make money on this deal.”

But mayoral candidate Fisher said some redevelopment projects are pushed through without proper consultation with residents. The 56-year-old businessman also said some private businesses such as the Alicante should not be given special financial incentives.

“I don’t think we should be financing private enterprise. Private enterprise should take care of its own problems,” Fisher said, referring to the bailout loan.

Modaffari, a past president of the 1,100-member West Orange County Board of Realtors, favors redevelopment to attract new business--but not, he said, at the expense “of giving too much away.”

Leadership, or the lack of it, is the central issue of the campaign, according to Modaffari, 55.

“The lack of leadership was demonstrated by their failure to appoint (as mayor) someone of their own,” he said. “I just think the people of Garden Grove are tired of this lame-duck council. The people on the council only care about their own self-interests.”

Moreland, who is known at K.T. and who lost to Cannon in last year’s regular mayoral election, regards redevelopment as an important issue and agreed that “the store shouldn’t be given away” to get it. But the self-employed, 27-year-old said she is more concerned about bolstering the 155-member police force to counter a rise in crime.

Cites 5-Year Plan

Most of the candidates also favor adding more officers to the police force. But Krieger, who has the endorsement of the Garden Grove Police Assn., said the city has already instituted a five-year plan to gradually increase the number of uniformed officers.

Being the only woman in the mayoral race, Moreland said, could work to her advantage at the polls. But even if she loses in the Nov. 3 special election, she vowed to consider running for a full term in 1988.

Least known among the candidates is Childres, who stated no occupation in his filing papers. Childres did not return telephone calls from The Times.

At a citizens’ forum last month in which the candidates stated their goals, Childres said only that he would be a full-time mayor, a job that pays $600 a month. Childres did not make any specific proposals, although he said he favored redevelopment.

“I really feel like Garden Grove needs a young person to run the city,” he told the audience.