Stormy Session Eases Fury of Tiff on Rancho Palos Verdes Council

Stormy as it was, last week’s City Council battle over ethics and personal conduct--a two-hour confrontation that did not end until 3 a.m. Tuesday--seems to have helped clear the air at Rancho Palos Verdes City Hall.

“We’re getting back to normalcy,” said City Manager Dennis McDuffie. “There was a cloud over the staff. To some extent, it’s still there, but at least it’s out in the open.”

Staff members say that cloud began gathering last year when City Councilman Robert Ryan and Environmental Services Director Robert Benard locked horns over Ryan’s plans to build an addition to his Menominee Place home.

Benard insisted that Ryan was required to submit a soils stability report because the addition would be near the top of a slope. Ryan disagreed, calling Benard’s decision an erroneous interpretation of the city development code.

Intimidation Campaign

In an interview, Benard said that Ryan began a campaign of intimidation that included verbal abuse and threats of physical violence against him. “I deal with unhappy people all the time . . . but they never get to the level this got on several occasions,” Benard said.

For his part, Ryan called Benard an “eruptive personality” and said he got so frustrated talking to him on the telephone that “I wanted to hit my head against the wall.” He said the two had “shouting matches” and “I probably said I’d like to kick (him) from here to Chicago,” but he denied that a remark like that was intended to be a threat.

A change of plans in Ryan’s home project has made the soils report moot for now, but the councilman said he won’t “cave in” on the issue “because I’m right.”

The controversy gathered momentum in March when Ryan’s secret marriage to City Clerk Jo Purcell was disclosed in a local newspaper. The couple married on Dec. 15, 1987, in Las Vegas while they and other city officials were attending a National League of Cities Conference.

Several city officials said they had suspected for months that the couple were married but that Ryan and Purcell had denied it when asked.

Mayor Jacki Bacharach said the first time she asked Ryan about the marriage was six months or a year ago. “I asked if they were married and he said, ‘No.’ I never asked Jo about it.”

Said Ryan: “Everybody in town knew I was going with Jo. We lived together in both houses”--his Rancho Palos Verdes home and Purcell’s home in Palos Verdes Estates. They divide their time between the two. He called the marriage a “very private thing” and said they intended to “go public with a big party” after remodeling the Menominee house.

For their part, council members appear more upset about Ryan and Purcell concealing their marriage than about problems it may pose for city government. Councilman Mel Hughes called it deceit.

City officials say Ryan has been verbally abusive to some staff members. Councilman Douglas Hinchliffe asserts that Ryan is carrying out a vendetta against the people he believes were responsible for leaking information about the marriage.

Ryan, who acknowledges that he can be abrasive, nonetheless denies that he has been abusive to the staff.

McDuffie said Ryan has gone so far as to threaten “the jobs and the future jobs” of himself, Benard and Finance Director Kevin N. Smith.

Ryan has made no secret of his desire to oust McDuffie. During the Tuesday council wrangle, he called McDuffie the worst city manager the city has ever had, but he later denied threatening Benard’s job and declined to comment on Smith.

McDuffie refused to comment on speculation that some department heads are actively seeking other jobs, but Hughes said he knows of two who are. He would not name them.

“From my perspective, this has almost brought the city to a halt,” said Hughes. “Bob has served the city well in the past, but at the moment, he is out to destroy the city for whatever personal purposes that he has decided make it right for him.”

Issue is Development

Ryan asserts that his dispute with Benard and his marriage to Purcell are not the cause of the present disruptions on the council, in which Ryan appears to be isolated from the staff and all but Councilman John McTaggart.

The real issue, he said, is development. A former member of the California Coastal Commission, Ryan says that rather than destroying the city, he is defending its General Plan and the concept of controlled development on which the city was founded.

“There is a developer orientation in this city running full tilt, actively pursuing (development) rather than waiting for it and then trying to hold it down,” Ryan said.

As examples, he cited two luxury hotel and golf course proposals that are in the planning stage along the coastline, and the Marriott Corp. retirement complex, which the council approved in concept last week but which he opposed. Ryan also accused Hinchliffe--an executive and part-owner of a Brentwood-based development and property management company--of being “totally dedicated to development of the city.”

During the Tuesday council tiff, Hinchliffe called Ryan a hypocrite on the development issue, saying Ryan has lobbied the coastal commission on behalf of development projects in other areas.

Denying that he acted as a lobbyist, Ryan said he has been paid to help some developers, including a personal friend, prepare reports and get information on projects to the commission. Although none of the projects has been in the city, he said the developments are the kind he would be willing to have there.

Only McTaggart agrees with Ryan that the estrangement within the council is about development, but he says he has “no hard evidence.” He joined Ryan in voting against the Marriott project last week.

Despite Ryan’s contention that his marriage will have no effect on city business, fallout over the Ryan-Purcell relationship has been felt at the staff level.

McDuffie said the marriage “raises questions about the confidentiality of personnel records” which Purcell is in charge of, as well as her role in conducting elections. “How can she deal with elections when her husband is up for election, or (issues) that may decide whether or not he may be returned to office?” he asked.

McDuffie noted that a possible citizens initiative campaign to limit council members to two terms would directly affect Ryan, who has held office since the city was incorporated in 1973. His term will be up in November. Ryan said last week that he decided last year that this would be his last term but said he may change his mind because of what he sees as the threat of development.

While acknowledging that City Atty. Steve Dorsey has held that the marriage breaks no conflict-of-interest laws, McDuffie said he is concerned about potentials for conflict in daily city operations. Some of Purcell’s duties could be changed to avoid that possibility, he said.

During last week’s meeting, McDuffie gave the council a letter of complaint from resident Daphne Clarke, who questioned whether Purcell had acted ethically in conveying information about her to Ryan. Clarke’s letter, addressed to the Cerritos mayor and City Council, said she had asked the city clerk for information about the Cerritos ordinance that limits council terms. She said the clerk called Purcell, who then told her husband about the inquiry.

Clarke, who is involved in researching the local initiative, said the information was passed from one council member to another and eventually reached her. Although she noted that it is not possible to file such a petition in secrecy, she said, “Had I been a person who was easily intimidated . . . I might have decided not to proceed.”

Purcell, who became deputy city clerk in 1976 and clerk in 1982, declined to comment on the incident but said she has never discussed city personnel matters with anyone but McDuffie.

Saying she has been dragged into a political fight, Purcell said: “All I want to do is come to work and enjoy my job. I’ve become the ham in the ham sandwich.”

Ryan called the flap about Cerritos “city gossip,” not city business.

But Councilman Hughes said he is concerned. “Ethics and fair play in government need to begin not with the lowest staff member, but with the most senior people.”

At the combative council session early Tuesday morning, Bacharach said the basis of ethics in city government must be trust and that she hopes the Ryan controversy can be put to rest.

“I want peace,” Bacharach said. “Mel and Doug and John want peace. I’m not sure Bob wants peace.”