VOTER’S GUIDE : TUESDAY’S MAIN EVENT : Choices of Incorporation, Mayor, Council on the Line

Voters in a string of unincorporated south coast communities will decide Tuesday whether to form Orange County’s 28th city, as Irvine residents choose a mayor directly for the first time.

Residents in Dana Point, Capistrano Beach and coastal Laguna Niguel will decide the fate of Measure B, which calls for the incorporation of a roughly 6-square-mile area with about 25,000 residents that would be known as Dana Point.

The debate over incorporation along the narrow coastal strip has been a source of controversy for more than two years. The disagreement has centered largely on the boundaries of the proposed city and whether a portion of inland Laguna Niguel should be included.

Twenty-three candidates, including residents of all three communities involved in the vote, are seeking seats on the city council that will be formed if Measure B passes. If cityhood is approved, the top five vote-getters will become the first council and will take office when cityhood becomes official on Jan. 1, 1989.

In Irvine’s first mayoral race, appointed incumbent Larry Agran, 42, a lawyer, is running against Barry Hammond, 36, a business analyst.

This is the first year that the mayor will be chosen directly by the voters instead of by the City Council. The change was mandated by a ballot measure passed by Irvine voters last year.

Agran favors growth-control measures, such as Measure A on the countywide ballot, as well as the city’s decision to sue the county over a series of development agreements approved for nearby unincorporated areas. Hammond opposes Measure A, saying it will hurt the county economy without addressing the critical problem of traffic.

In addition to the mayor’s job, two seats on the five-member City Council are up for grabs Tuesday in Irvine, and there are five candidates on the ballot.

Two county supervisors face challengers on Tuesday’s ballot, but neither appears to be in any danger of losing. Roger R. Stanton, 50, is seeking his third term in the 1st District, while Gaddi H. Vasquez, 33, is running for election in the 3rd District for the first time. Vasquez was appointed to his seat in April, 1987, by Gov. George Deukmejian after Bruce Nestande resigned.

Ron May, a 48-year-old Santa Ana councilman, is running against Stanton; Sam Porter, a south county rancher and a director on the Santa Ana Mountains County Water District board, is opposing Vasquez. Both challengers support Measure A and have attacked the incumbents’ records on growth and development issues.

Vasquez, who Porter contends has been “bought by developer money,” has said he plans to vote against the slow-growth measure. Stanton has been criticized by May because he has declined to take a public position on the measure.

There are three judicial races on the ballot Tuesday.

North Orange County Municipal Judge Sidney Maleck is being challenged by 40-year-old Michael A. Leversen, a well-known Anaheim attorney who has called Maleck incompetent and has criticized him as a purely political appointee. Maleck, 64, was appointed to the bench by Deukmejian two years ago.

In the other Municipal Court race, Gerald L. Klein, 45, a private attorney, is running against Deputy Dist. Atty. Brett G. London, 36, for a seat being vacated by West Municipal Judge Kenneth M. Smith, who is retiring.

The only Superior Court judge on the ballot is Robert A. Knox, 60, who is opposed by Newport Beach attorney James E. Wilkoski, 48.

Five candidates are seeking two seats on the county’s Board of Education.

In Trustee Area No. 2, Sheila Meyers, the appointed incumbent, is running against Norma L. Vander Molen, a community services commissioner, and Mercedes (Mickey) McCullough, an education consultant. In Trustee Area No. 4, Nickolas A. Siokos, a retired teacher, has challenged incumbent Dean McCormick.

Citywide ballot measures Tuesday include two in Irvine: Measure C and Measure D.

Measure C would add 5,000 acres of permanent open space--including hillsides, canyons, orange groves and agricultural land--to the city’s general plan. Measure D is a Charter amendment that would allow citizens to petition for an election to fill any council seat that is vacated when an incumbent council member is elected mayor. That would change the current procedure, which calls for the runner-up council candidate to fill the position.

In San Clemente and Seal Beach, residents will decide whether to adopt ordinances similar to the countywide Measure A that would limit growth within those two cities.

And Westminster residents, for the second time since 1986, will vote on a rent-control ordinance for mobile home parks. The city has about 2,900 mobile homes and one of the largest mobile home populations in the county. The initiative would tie increases in park rents to the consumer price index.

In the county’s 38th, 39th and 42nd congressional districts, only one incumbent faces any opposition on Tuesday’s ballot.

In the 39th District, Rep. William Dannemeyer (R-Fullerton) is opposed by attorney John M. Gullixson in the GOP primary but is expected to win easily and to square off against Democrat Don E. Marquis and Libertarian Lee Connelly in the fall.