Campaign Infighter Sits This One Out : Mary Lou Howard Says She’ll Stay Low-Key in Burbank Races

This time, says Mary Lou Howard, she’s going to stay out of it.

Howard, a Burbank City Council member and one of the city’s most influential and powerful politicians, said she will go against personal tradition and not get involved in the race between four finalists for two council seats in the city’s election April 11.

Don’t believe it, her critics claim, one of them saying that Howard “can’t keep her fingers out of anything.”

Howard was blasted by some candidates and developers during the city’s Feb. 28 election. They accused her of trying to take over Burbank politics by sending out misleading mailers and manipulating voters with “lies and distortions” to control who sits on the council.

Although she maintains that all she did was endorse candidates she favored, Howard said that during this election, she will avoid even the appearance of conducting behind-the-scenes maneuvers.

Howard said she was standing aside because she did not want to cause more hard feelings.

Making Enemies

“My involvement four years ago helped to change the direction of the city, and when you do things like that you make a lot of enemies,” Howard said. “I just wanted to stay out of that this time.”

“I’m not getting involved with anything,” Howard said. “I like campaigns, I like the challenge of them. But I am going to stay out of this one totally. I am not doing any campaigning or fund raising.”

But critics say she has already gotten involved in the campaign because of her recently announced withdrawal of support for Mayor Al F. Dossin, whom Howard endorsed in the Feb. 28 election. Dossin finished fourth out of 14 candidates in that race.

Howard, 51, said she is instead supporting George Bonney, a Los Angeles County Fire Department captain who finished fifth in the Feb. 28 election. She said she would continue to endorse Timothy Murphy, an attorney she had supported.

Murphy and Bonney said they felt the endorsement would help their campaigns significantly, and have been using Howard’s name in campaign literature.

Blamed for Loss

Councilwoman Mary E. Kelsey, who blames Howard for her defeat in the Feb. 28 election, said the switch was a typical Howard tactic.

“She can’t keep her fingers out of anything,” Kelsey said.

Dossin said he was not upset by Howard’s abandonment. “Mary Lou Howard is entitled to do anything she wants,” he said.

But he added, “I don’t think she uses her influence to get people on the council. However, I think she uses her influence to get people off the council.”

What will be determined in the April 11 election is whether the Howard name has the same influence it did four years ago, when she endorsed Dossin, Kelsey and Councilman Michael R. Hastings in their initial successful bids for council seats.

The Howard name already has been influential in the Feb. 28 election. Thomas Flavin, vice president of the city Planning Board and one of three candidates backed by Howard, received more than 50% of the vote to be elected outright, avoiding the April 11 runoff.

Two other candidates supported by Howard--Murphy and Dossin--finished third and fourth, respectively. They will compete against Hastings and Bonney for the remaining two council seats.

“Mary Lou Howard wants more than just 20% control of the council,” Hastings said then. “She wants total control. . . . She should be ashamed to have any part in Mary Kelsey going out the way she is going out.”

Four years ago, Kelsey and Hastings said Howard’s endorsement was important in their victories. Howard wanted to defeat then-Mayor E. Daniel Remy and Councilman Larry Stamper, who continually opposed her on the council.

Remy and Stamper were beaten in the election by the Howard-backed slate, and Howard later bragged, “Mr. Remy was run over by a train, and I was the engineer.”

Acting on Endorsement

Bonney said people apparently voted for the three candidates based solely on Howard’s endorsement. “Not that many people knew who Al Dossin was, but they voted for him because they knew Mary Lou would do what was best for the people,” he said.

Months after the election, Howard said she had made a mistake in supporting Dossin and Kelsey. She said they did not share her slow-growth philosophy as she had thought, and favored the desires of developers over residents.

Howard and her supporters say her standing in the community is due to her accessibility and her concerns about issues that directly affect residents. Opponents--and some of her supporters--say she is also a calculated and astute political animal who can be vindictive toward those who don’t agree with her philosophy.

Although she insisted that she was staying out of next week’s election, Howard stressed that she planned on using her power in the future.

“I have no intention of taking a back seat to anything or anyone,” she said firmly in an interview. “I hopefully will remain a force to be reckoned with. I will be involved with issues in this city as I have been in the past. I will represent the people the best way I can. If that makes some people uncomfortable and angry, sorry, but that’s too bad.”

Personal Tragedies

Her decision to remain neutral had been made even before recent tragedies that politicians speculated last month would cause Howard to leave the political scene for a while.

Attorney Jack Howard, the councilwoman’s husband of 34 years, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound March 4. His death came four days after a planned-growth initiative proposed by Howard was approved overwhelmingly by voters in the Feb. 28 election.

At the time, Howard was recovering from a fractured pelvis she suffered in a fall at her house.

“In terms of the politics, it’s not fun right now,” Howard said. “These events of the past months are still vivid. I’m not sleeping, I’m awake at 3 a.m. But time heals all wounds and there will be a tomorrow. At some point down the road, I will consider the politics to be as much fun as ever.”

3rd Term

Howard is in the middle of her third four-year term on the council. She was a housewife and medical assistant when she first ran for the council in 1977. She lost that bid, but won two years later.

She said she doesn’t plan to run for another term. “I will stay involved in partisan politics, but I definitely will not run for the council again,” said Howard, who is a Democrat.

“It’s time for some new faces up there. But I have no intention of moving out of Burbank. Jack and I had plans for a long time to do extensive remodeling on our house, and I’m going to start on that.”

Although she said she has no immediate plans to run for higher office, supporters and opponents alike believe she would do well.

“Mary Lou has a wonderful public image, and I think she is a person who can do whatever she wants politically,” Stamper said. Even though he clashed with her in the past, Stamper said that outside the political arena, “Mary Lou is one of the neatest people I know.”

Exercising Power

Councilman Robert R. Bowne called Howard “a master at maintaining and exercising her power. She’s been able to have a great deal of influence over the policies and elections in Burbank. I don’t think it’s an abuse of power to actively support or oppose someone. That’s what politics is all about.”

But Bowne said there seemed to be a negative tenor to mailers and flyers Howard was involved with. “In the past, she has taken the tactic of pointing out negative votes or characteristics of people she opposes,” she said. “It’s an acceptable approach to politics, but it creates divisiveness and polarizes public opinion.”

Hastings and Kelsey said Howard, along with two unions, targeted them during the Feb. 28 election with mailers that distorted their stands on issues. “The Mary Lou Howard political machine is trying to take over the city,” Hastings said in a news conference.

A flyer sent out by Howard’s political action committee detailed her planned-growth ordinance, and called Hastings the most vocal critic of the legislation. Hastings supported the ordinance but said it was not restrictive enough.

Mailers distributed by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 15 and the Burbank Fire Fighters Local 778 urged residents not to vote for Kelsey and Hastings. The two council members said Howard was behind those mailers, a charge Howard denied.

Harsh Criticism

“She certainly had plenty to do with getting me off the council,” Kelsey said. “Her aim in life was to get rid of me.”

Developer Thomas Tunnicliffe also blasted Howard after the election. He said she was responsible for a mailer that accused the city of granting him favors and that criticized him for dealing with City Manager Bud Ovrom when Ovrom wanted to build a home in Burbank.

The mailer, which was to have been distributed by Bonney, one of the four finalists for the Council, was pulled before it was sent out. Bonney said he did not feel the mailer focused enough on issues in the campaign.

“Mary Lou Howard was responsible for a last-second character assassination mailer against me,” Tunnicliffe wrote in a letter. “I was shocked by the black-hearted poisonous depths of Mary Lou Howard’s mind.”

Bonney said Howard did not have anything to do with the mailer. He added that Jack Howard did refer him to a political consultant who put the mailer together. Mary Lou Howard said she was not behind the mailer. “I don’t know if Jack had anything to do with it,” she said.

No Mailers

Howard said she was not sending out any mailers or helping with any mailers in this election. She said she would allow Murphy and Bonney to use her name, but that that was going to be the extent of her involvement.

The Howard name can help significantly, said Murphy, who finished second in Feb. 28 election.

“Her endorsement is a major step forward in terms of one’s candidacy,” Murphy said. “To my mind, she probably has the best reputation of anyone on the council for being accessible and for knowing where Burbank is going.”

Howard acknowledged that her opinion was respected in the community: “I feel that people do trust me,” she said. “They may not like all my decisions, but they know I’m really fair and that I care.”

But Dossin said on April 11, Howard may be in for a surprise.

“I’ve got a lot of faith in the voters,” he said. “I think they will sit down and analyze the facts, and vote their hearts no matter what.”