WESTMINSTER : Suit Seeks to Retain Council’s Term Limit

Two residents filed suit Tuesday to preserve an ordinance that limits the term of Councilwoman Lyn Gillespie to two years.

The suit names four council members who voted to repeal the ordinance. It seeks an injunction to block that action and to prevent the issue from being placed on the November ballot. A hearing is scheduled Feb. 9.

Two weeks ago, Mayor Charles V. Smith and council members Frank Fry Jr., Joy L. Neugebauer and Gillespie voted to rescind the ordinance and order that voters decide the issue Nov. 7. Councilwoman Anita Huseth voted against repealing the ordinance and is not named in the suit.

But the council was undaunted by the suit and a crowd of about 150 residents that attended the Tuesday council meeting. At a second reading of the resolution, the council adopted the ordinance in a 3-1 vote with Huseth again dissenting.

Westminster residents Margie Rice and Grace Epperson filed the suit in Orange County Superior Court. Rice lost a bid for the council in 1988.

In early 1988, the council passed an ordinance that limited the winning candidate with the least number of votes in that year’s general election to a two-year term.

The council passed the ordinance to make two council seats open at every election and to correct an imbalance in which three City Council seats are open in one election and just one in the next.

In the election, Gillespie received the fewest votes of the winning candidates. With the ordinance repealed, she would not have to run again until November, 1992.

“It’s obvious that there’s a little game-playing going on to accommodate a spoiled brat,” said Kenneth E. Mick, attorney for the plaintiffs and another Westminster resident.

City Atty. Richard Jones told the council in a previous meeting that Gillespie could have the basis for a lawsuit if the ordinance was not repealed and referred to a 1973 opinion from the California attorney general’s office saying that a general-law city may not reduce the term of a council member from four to two years.