Controversial Councilman in Rancho P.V. Resigns Abruptly : Politics: Colleagues at City Hall are stunned--especially since Robert E. Ryan is listed as a council candidate in the next election.

Longtime Rancho Palos Verdes Councilman Robert E. Ryan, who had bickered with council colleagues and is a candidate in the Nov. 7 election, resigned without warning in a one-sentence statement he left for the council at its meeting Tuesday night.

Ryan did not attend the meeting and could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

“This is to inform you that I am resigning as a member of the Rancho Palos Verdes City Council, effective 7:30 p.m. Oct. 17,” Ryan wrote in the one-sentence resignation read by City Clerk Jo Purcell, who also is his wife.

Council members and the audience of 30 were stunned. Ryan has been on the council since the city’s incorporation in 1973, and served as both mayor and mayor pro tem.

“I am very surprised. It was a shock,” said Mayor Jacki Bacharach during a recess.

Ryan’s name appears on the November ballot.

“He can theoretically resign from this council and be elected to the next. . . . That certainly is possible,” said City Manager Dennis McDuffie.

Purcell said in an interview during a recess that her husband is not ill, adding she had little warning of his plan.

In a telephone call Wednesday, Purcell said: “I didn’t know about it, and I have nothing else left to say.”

Bacharach, a contender in next month’s election, said that despite Ryan missing the last couple of meetings, she had no idea that he would resign.

City Atty. Ariel P. Calonne said Ryan’s resignation is final.

Robert E. McNulty, an attorney who is challenging Ryan in the election, speculated that Ryan’s resignation might be due to illness because Ryan has not been seen in several weeks.

“My ego would like to think we were doing so well, and he’d rather resign than to face defeat,” said McNulty outside the council meeting.

In April, Ryan said this might be his last term on the council, though, he said, he could change his mind to combat development.

Two Ryan allies, Councilman John McTaggart and businessman Alan Carlan, said they too were surprised by Ryan’s resignation, adding that he appeared “fired up” at a homeowners association meeting last weekend.

“He gave no hints he’d resign,” said Carlan, who is running for a seat on the council.

City Manager Dennis McDuffie, with whom Ryan often butted heads, said he could not understand why Purcell did not tell the council of her husband’s resignation earlier Tuesday.

“That’s what I find disturbing,” McDuffie said.

At a council meeting in August, Ryan had called McDuffie the worst city manager in the city’s history.

“He was a city councilman, and I am a city manager. However, in his case, it was not a mutual admiration society,” McDuffie said Wednesday in describing his relationship with Ryan.

Ryan’s name-calling caused low morale among some at City Hall.

In March, tension between Ryan and the council majority swelled when the council learned of Ryan’s December, 1987, marriage to Purcell. Councilman Mel Hughes called it deceit.

Councilman Douglas Hinchliffe, who characterized his relationship with Ryan as adversarial, nevertheless praised Ryan for his 16 years of service to the city.