ELECTION ’89 : Incumbent’s Performance Gets Spotlight in Rolling Hills Estates

In March, Rolling Hills Estates City Councilwoman Jacki McGuire was elected to fill out the unexpired term of veteran Councilman Jerome Belsky, who had been recalled the previous November in a bitter election.

Now, as she seeks her first full four-year term in her own right in the Tuesday election, McGuire’s performance in office is the major issue in the four-way race for two council seats. One seat is open because Mayor Nell Mirels--who has been on the council since 1972--did not seek reelection.

In addition to McGuire, a 43-year-old special education teacher in the Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District, candidates include Hirsh V. Marantz, 57, an electronics engineer; Susan Seamans, a 48-year-old interior designer, and Ken Servis, 50, a USC chemistry professor and dean, who also is a city planning commissioner.

Seamans and Servis contend that McGuire has been ineffective and disruptive and has refused to learn how to function as a councilwoman. “She has not listened and learned,” Servis said. But Marantz admires McGuire, saying that she has been “trying to break through the good-old-boy system.”

For her part, McGuire said, “I’ve given the residents an active voice on the council, have stuck by the residents through thick and thin, despite the criticism and harassment.”

In addition to the council race, the city ballot includes two propositions relating to a utility users tax to raise money for the purchase of public open space. Proposition N would create a four-year, 5% tax. A companion measure, Proposition O, would allow the city to exceed its so-called Gann limit on tax revenues for the duration of the tax. Both must be approved for the tax to be collected, and approval of the utility tax itself requires a two-thirds vote.

All of the candidates believe that open space preservation is a key city concern, but they differ on how to do it. McGuire, Seamans and Marantz support the utility tax. Servis opposes the tax, contending it will raise too little to be effective and that land may be kept open through zoning or easements from property owners.

If McGuire is the leading issue in the council race, longevity of council service--one bone of contention in the Belsky recall--is a close second in the view of some candidates. Except for McGuire, the four current council members have shared the dais for more than a decade. Belsky served 12 years before being recalled.

Although none of the longtime incumbents are on Tuesday’s ballot, most of the candidates expressed a belief that the city needs more turnover in its leadership.

“I believe in vital government,” Seamans said. “If people stay too long, it gets tired.” She said new leadership is needed, particularly in the areas of land use and open space preservation.

Marantz said he advocates a two-term limit on council service and blamed what he termed unequal treatment of people by the council to officeholders becoming “entrenched.” He contends that some people get approval of home modifications faster if they are supporters of a council member.

McGuire also is continuing to advocate a two-term council limit, as she did in the special election.

Both Seamans and Servis are banking on their name recognition and record of community service. Marantz is the self-admitted “underdog,” saying he was prompted to run because of the longtime flap in his neighborhood over proposed expansion of the Peninsula Heritage School, which the council eventually turned down.

Seamans was on the Palos Verdes Library District board from 1977 to 1985. Currently, she is president of the Palos Verdes Peninsula Coordinating Council.

Servis, a planning commissioner for 11 years, said he has been effective in preserving the city’s rural atmosphere. “I was instrumental in the neighborhood compatibility ordinance, which is the single most effective tool to protect the city,” he said. That measure sets procedures to ensure that new homes fit into their neighborhood.

McGuire argues that one of her strong suits has been making waves over conditional use permits, which she contends the city does not enforce quickly or stringently enough. For example, she has continually hammered at Chandler’s Palos Verdes Sand & Gravel Co. quarry to comply with noise and landscaping requirements.

Some of her council colleagues have accused her of being anti-business and trying to rush an established timetable for the work, but she has sided with nearby residents, who contend they have lived with Chandler noise for too long.

McGuire said residents “have to be watchdogs” in their own neighborhood, which should be the city’s role.

Critics of McGuire fault her on several counts, including her practice of abstaining on nearly all matters touching on the school district despite a city attorney’s opinion that she has no conflict of interest as a district employee. (Mirels also is a school employee and does not abstain.)

Seamans and Servis contend that by abstaining on such things as placing the utility tax on the ballot, McGuire is shirking her duty to participate in deciding critical issues.

McGuire said identification of the closed Dapplegray Intermediate School site as a possible future open space acquisition prompted her abstention. “I abstain on issues where city money is going to my employer,” she said.

Servis also accused McGuire of knowingly conveying false information about a Chandler project to neighbors already unhappy with quarry operations. Specifically, he said, she took plans to the neighbors showing that light standards for a proposed golf driving range were 40 feet tall when she knew the Planning Commission had reduced them to 10 feet.

McGuire said she took plans to the neighbors that showed the lights at 20 feet, and that she told them the commission had lowered them. Subsequently, residents made it clear they wanted no lights at all, and the golf range was shelved.

McGuire sees that kind of activity as typical of the way she performs as a council member.

“I become an active voice to inform (residents) of what is going on. They come up with their goals. I gather information for them and try to organize them so they can reach their goal,” she said.

THE CANDIDATES Hirsh V. Marantz

Council challenger

Age: 57

Occupation: electronics engineer

Jacki McGuire

Council incumbent

Age: 43

Occupation: special education teacher

Susan Seamans

Council challenger

Age: 48

Occupation: interior designer

Ken Servis

Council challenger

Age: 50

Occupation: USC chemistry professor, dean