Election ’89 : Councilman Voss Gets the Boot

Councilman Fred Voss was thrown out of office Tuesday by voters who couldn’t forgive him for solicitation of sex earlier this year.

“I think it shows that people are looking for their leaders to be of excellent moral character,” said Karen Lee, a member of the recall committee. “We are very pleased.”

Voss, awaiting election results at a local bar, refused comment, saying: “I will not add another syllable to the garbage that has already been printed about me.”

Voters favored Voss’ recall by a nearly 2-1 margin. They also voted to fill the one year left in his term by City Council appointment rather than by special election. Lee said neither she nor other members of the recall committee were interested in the job.

Voss, 52, was arrested by Santa Ana police during a well-publicized crackdown on prostitution on Harbor Boulevard in January. After offering $20 to an undercover officer disguised as a prostitute, Voss was arrested on suspicion of soliciting sex.

He later pleaded no contest to the misdemeanor charge, was fined $300 and sentenced to three years’ probation.

A group of outraged residents lost little time organizing an effort to oust Voss, and by July they had submitted the 7,000 signatures needed to qualify the recall for the ballot.

To those supporting the recall, the question was one of judgment. They questioned whether they could trust important city decisions to a man willing to risk solicitation of a prostitute during a time when police had announced a high-profile crackdown on prostitutes in Santa Ana.

Voss, a telephone systems manager who was divorced four years ago, was first elected to the Fountain Valley City Council in 1982 and reelected in 1986.

In the furor that followed the solicitation incident, Voss resigned his ceremonial post of mayor but refused to relinquish his City Council position.

The committee to recall Voss ran a low-profile campaign, spending only about $300 on posters. Voss declined to say how much the campaign has cost him, although he mailed flyers to voters emphasizing his involvement in more than 20 local organizations.

Voss has apologized for the prostitution incident, calling it “half curiosity, half lies and some entrapment.” But Voss said that making a mistake, even one of this magnitude, should not negate his 20 years of civic involvement in Fountain Valley.

A resident of Fountain Valley since the 1960s, Voss is a former board member of the Fountain Valley School District and the Boys Club Advisory Board. He became involved in city politics in 1981 when he was appointed to the Planning Commission.