23 Join Bid for Council in Cityhood Election

Twenty-three candidates will compete for five city council seats in the Nov. 7 cityhood election for Laguna Niguel.

The candidates include all five current members of the Laguna Niguel Community Services District, an elected body that takes care of streets, lighting and parks. The candidates also include seven of the 13 members of the Laguna Niguel Community Council, an elected, advisory group to county government.

Friday afternoon was the deadline for filing for the election, in which Laguna Niguel voters will decide if they want to become Orange County’s 29th city. If a majority of those voting punch the yes for cityhood option on their ballots, a city council will also come into being.

The five persons receiving the highest number of votes will be elected to that council but will take office only if the cityhood proposal passes.

Most south Orange County political observers predict an overwhelmingly favorable vote by Laguna Niguel for cityhood. Opinion polls also have shown strong voter sentiment for incorporation.

“I don’t know of any group organized against cityhood,” said Mike Walsh, one of the candidates for the proposed city council. Walsh, who was at the registrar of voters’ office in Santa Ana as the 5 p.m. filing deadline approached Friday, said he thinks that most Laguna Niguel residents want to become a city so that they can better control development.

Paul Christiansen, a director of the Laguna Niguel Community Services District, also predicted overwhelming voter support for cityhood. Christiansen, who is among the 23 candidates for city council, said he had been “campaigning out at shopping centers in Laguna Niguel, and I’d say that less than 1% of those I meet are opposed to cityhood.”

In the past two years, south Orange County has had a flurry of interest in forming new cities. Last year voters approved cityhood for both Mission Viejo and Dana Point. The proposal for cityhood narrowly lost last June in Laguna Hills, which borders Laguna Niguel to the north.

Unlike the current Laguna Niguel situation, Laguna Hills had a community schism over cityhood, with opposition coming primarily from the residents of Leisure World.

Last month Laguna Hills pro-cityhood advocates were told by an official of the Local Agency Formation Commission that they should wait until after the Laguna Niguel election before attempting another try at cityhood. Residents in other areas of south Orange County also will be watching the Laguna Niguel election closely. If cityhood fails there, parts of the area could be annexed by nearby cities.

Laguna Niguel residents already are fuming over Dana Point’s success in making Monarch Beach a part of its incorporation into cityhood last year. Laguna Niguel originally proposed inclusion of Monarch Beach within its borders.

There are two lawsuits pending that challenge Dana Point’s right to the 1 1/2-mile coastal strip in Monarch Beach.

As proposed on the Nov. 7 ballot, the city of Laguna Niguel would be an inland city, bordered by Dana Point on the south, Laguna Beach on the west, Mission Viejo on the east and Laguna Hills on the north.

In addition to Christiansen, the other four incumbent members of the Laguna Niguel Community Services District also filed for the proposed city council. They are James F. Krembas, Larry A. Porter, Patricia C. Bates and Marc E. Leever. Porter and Leever were appointed, rather than elected, to fill vacancies.

Bates is also a member of the Laguna Niguel Community Council. In addition to Bates and Walsh, the other community council members who filed for the proposed city council are Thomas W. Wilson, Lynn P. Kentfield, Roger Lance, Eli Naffah and Richard Steinhoff.

The other candidates who completed filing for the election were: Eddie Rose, Neil Burns, Abel Armas, Dennis W. Fletcher, E.J. (Jim) Hinkson, Daniel Jeffrey Cohen, Wilbur Davidson, Mark Goodman, Chris Devendorf, Maureen McManus, William Thomas Doyle and Frank E. Hotchkiss.