Hughes Named R.P.V. Mayor; McTaggart Upset at Snub

The turmoil on the Rancho Palos Verdes City Council reached new heights Wednesday when outgoing Mayor Jacki Bacharach nominated Councilman Mel Hughes to succeed her, snubbing Councilman John McTaggart, who was expected to take over the largely ceremonial post.

Hughes, an engineer who has served on the council for six years and was mayor once before, became mayor again by a vote of 3 to 2. Had the council followed its scheduled rotation of the mayor’s post, it would have been McTaggart’s turn to represent the city during ribbon-cutting ceremonies and preside at the council meetings.

Bacharach told an audience of about 30 people at 12:30 a.m. that she hoped Hughes could unify the city after a “very contentious year. I think we need a time of healing.”

Her words were greeted with an outburst from the audience, including Florence McTaggart, who had come to City Hall to see her husband named mayor.

“This is unethical,” shouted one person.

“We feel John should be it,” yelled another. “No. It’s not right. It’s not right, Jacki.”

So began the time of healing.

McTaggart and Councilman Robert Ryan voted against Hughes but could not best Bacharach and her council allies, Hughes and Douglas Hinchliffe.

In an interview following the vote, Bacharach explained her decision.

“There’s no question that there’s a majority and a minority on the council, and you don’t put in a mayor who is a spokesman for the minority,” she said. “I know John is hurt, and I’m truly sorry for it. I don’t think he has the ability to bring the city together. He identifies with Bob (Ryan) and with Bob’s concerns.”

Others on the council and in City Hall have said privately that they suspect an alliance between Ryan and McTaggart, but McTaggart stoutly denied that one existed--at least until Tuesday night’s council meeting.

“If they wanted to bring Bob and me closer together, there would be no better way on the face of the earth,” McTaggart said in a telephone interview.

Bacharach and other city officials assert that Ryan has destroyed staff morale by bullying city employees, a charge he denies. And they have criticized him for keeping secret for more than a year his marriage to City Clerk Jo Purcell.

In an interview Wednesday, Ryan said no alliance exists between him and McTaggart. “John is a good friend of mine, just like Jacki is a good friend of Mel’s and Doug’s,” he said.

Ryan called the council’s action a “cheap, political trick” that was “very hurtful to John.”

Hughes said he will do what he can to smooth things over.

However, McTaggart said it is not going to be easy. “I’ll probably get over it, but it’s going to take a while.”