Runner-Up in Irvine Race : Cosgrove Is Sworn In as Foes Vow Challenge

Cameron Cosgrove took an oath of office and a seat on the Irvine City Council on Wednesday night, climaxing a six-week political controversy but leaving some infuriated residents vowing to fight his election to office.

Cosgrove, an insurance executive and city planning commissioner, and Paula Werner, a city transportation commissioner, became Irvine’s newest council members after signing and reciting oaths of office administered by City Clerk Nancy C. Lacey.

At the same time, Mayor Larry Agran began a four-year term as Irvine’s first elected mayor, and Sally Anne Miller, who was out of state on personal business, began a second term as councilwoman.

But the meeting turned ugly immediately after the somber swearing-in when several residents stepped up to a lectern and harshly condemned both Cosgrove and Agran, political allies who they said illegally ignored a petition drive to fill Cosgrove’s seat by special election.

“What do we have here but an exercise in selective democracy?” said Howard Klein, who stared at Agran and Cosgrove. “An election has been overruled by fiat for the first time in this city’s history. . . . This story is not over,” he said to applause from about a dozen members of the audience. “This council is illegal.”

Klein has been among the leaders of several citizens groups pushing for a special election to fill the council vacancy created when Agran was elected mayor.

They were heartened last week when Secretary of State March Fong Eu quickly validated Measure D, an Irvine charter amendment approved last month that would allow special elections when council members are elevated to mayor. Led by Miller, a group of citizens earlier this month submitted about 4,100 signatures--enough to force such an election to fill Agran’s council seat.

But existing city law also entitled Cosgrove, as the first runner-up in last month’s council race, to fill the rest of Agran’s term. And despite City Atty. Roger Grable’s opinion that Measure D had taken effect and a special election should be called, Cosgrove was sworn in Wednesday night upon the wishes of the council.

“Can you realize the rage some of us feel over this?” Scott Vanatter asked the new council. “Mr. Cosgrove, I can’t believe you would want to take that seat. You weren’t elected to it. Wouldn’t you want to serve knowing you won in a real election?”

“When I walked in here tonight,” said Mike Lennon, “and saw Mr. Cosgrove’s nameplate (on the council stand), I felt like there had already been an abuse of government.”

Not everyone who spoke out after the swearing-in took Agran and Cosgrove to task. “I’m so happy to see this new council and all it represents for the city,” Eleanor Petrediz said.

After the public comments, Agran spent several minutes defending his actions and Cosgrove’s place on the council.

“Cameron Cosgrove had earned his seat by virtue of the decisive victory he scored on June 7,” he said.

Agran told the audience, packed into council chambers, that the only question was whether Measure D applied to the June election. On that score, he said, several attorneys had offered conflicting opinions. “And their opinions are just opinions, not law,” he said, adding: “We have received clear direction from Superior Court” on whether the measure applies to the June race.

Agran was referring to two decisions, one Tuesday and the other last week, by Superior Court Commissioner Julian Cimbaluk not to bar Cosgrove’s swearing-in, which Klein and several other Irvine residents had requested. With little other comment, Cimbaluk called both requests premature.

But Klein and Vanatter denied that Cimbaluk’s rulings meant that Measure D did not apply to the June race.

One reason for the strong language and harsh denunciations Wednesday night is that the seating of the new council reshapes its political makeup and redraws its battle lines.

With C. David Baker retired from city politics, Miller is now the council’s lone conservative. She beat Cosgrove in the June race by only 106 votes and is supported by the citizens groups that petitioned for the election to fill Agran’s seat.

Miller and these groups oppose the city’s slow-growth advocates, led on the council by Agran and Edward A. Dornan, who is in the middle of his first term and who was elected mayor pro tem Wednesday night. The council’s slow-growth majority now also includes Werner and Cosgrove.

“I’m elated,” Cosgrove said after signing his oath of office Wednesday night. “The hard work seems to have paid off.”

With the two sides split over whether Measure D applies to the June election--and considering the charges of petition fraud that Cosgrove supporters raised last week--some observers believe that the council dispute will likely be settled in court.

“We will pursue this in the court of public opinion,” said Klein, adding that legally the issue of Measure D’s application to the race has yet to be decided.

“Let’s just put it this way,” Vanatter said. “We’ll not take this lying down. Believe me, this will not be the last word.”