Novices Defeat Top La Canada Officeholders

Two political novices upset the La Canada mayor and mayor pro tem in Tuesday’s City Council election.

Challenger Chris Valente, executive director of the La Canada Youth House-Community Center, led all four candidates with 2,801 votes. Attorney Ed Phelps finished second with 2,538 votes.

Mayor Pro Tem Jack Hastings received 2,354 votes and Mayor J. Bixby Smith, 1,774.

The new council members will be sworn in Tuesday 19 for four-year terms. Thirty-six percent of the city’s 13,459 registered voters cast ballots.

During the bitter campaign, Phelps and Valente said the incumbents had been unresponsive, pro-growth and fiscally wasteful.

“I think it’s a mandate from the people,” Valente, 45, a former high school government teacher, said after the election.

‘The People’s Choice’

But he said he will not use that mandate to make decisions without hearing from the public. “I’ll still go to them and will serve them,” he said.

Valente, 45, whose slogan was “The People’s Choice,” had been the most aggressive of the two challengers.

He said the council had lost touch with the community and was following its own agenda.

Phelps, a 38-year-old neighborhood activist, said the victory substantiated the challengers’ view that voters were unhappy because the council made decisions without consulting residents.

Phelps also said residents had expressed concern to him about the council’s ability to work with Valente, who Phelps said had become known as “the town critic.”

“I’ll be a tempering factor,” Phelps said. He also said he intends to address issues he became aware of during his campaign, such as the need for freeway sound barriers.

Smith, who was seeking election to a second term, blamed the “mudslinging tactics” of the other candidates as a factor in his loss.

“I think the smear campaign had an effect,” Smith said, referring to the distribution of anonymous flyers in the last week of the campaign. One flyer showed an arrow with Smith’s and Hastings’ last names on it pointing to the rear end of a horse. Another flyer claimed that the City Council is “out to destroy our residential community” and likened the council to the Three Stooges.

Tactics Called Misleading

Smith, a 62-year-old retired Lockheed executive, said the challengers misled voters into believing that the city’s commercial sector was growing when, in fact, there was little if any commercial growth. He said he interpreted the election as “a rejection of a policy of limited progress.”

Smith said the addition of the new members will mean more debate on the council, slowing down the day-to-day business of city government.

“Both came in with an incredible amount of ignorance about running the business,” Smith said, “although I hope they are smart enough to see where we are going.”

Hastings, 59-year-old builder and contractor, could not be reached for comment.

The two new councilmen join council members Joan Feehan, who is serving her first term, and O. Warren Hillgren and Edmund Krause, who have both been on the council for 12 years.

(Inc.) designates incumbent office holder. Winners are in bold type.

La Canada Flintridge

CITY COUNCIL 9 of 9 precincts

2 vacancies

Vote % Chris Valente 2,801 29.5 Ed Phelps 2,538 26.8 Jack Hastings (Inc.) 2,354 24.8 J. Bixby Smith (Inc.) 1,774 18.7