TUSTIN : City Clerk Plans Suit Over Election Details

Disagreements on the City Council may once again send its members into court.

City Clerk Mary Wynn plans to file a lawsuit against the council next week in Superior Court in order to proceed with the scheduled April 10 council election, City Atty. James G. Rourke said.

In an unlikely twist in the dispute, two council members who may be named as defendants in the suit may also be listed as plaintiffs, according to Rourke.

What prompted the latest action was the City Council’s 2-2 deadlock Tuesday night on setting up precincts, polling places and other details for the election, usually a routine matter. Councilmen John Kelly and Earl J. Prescott said they voted against setting up election details because they oppose the idea of an April election.

Rourke said council members are required by law to approve details for elections, but Kelly and Prescott disagree.

“I thought it was only in the Soviet Union you got in trouble if you didn’t vote a certain way,” Kelly said.

Rourke said the suit, which will be handled by an outside law firm, will ask the court to order the council to adopt a resolution that establishes the polling places and precincts.

The city clerk will be one of the petitioners in the suit, but she may be joined by others, including the mayor, other council members, registered voters and council candidates, Rourke said. The suit will name all four council members, the council as a body and probably the city, he said.

Mayor Richard B. Edgar, who voted with Councilwoman Ursula E. Kennedy to approve the election details, said he thinks the suit is a good idea.

“We have directed as a council that the city clerk carry out the election,” he said. “Mary Wynn is now disobeying the law by not doing the things that we mandated. . . .” Prescott said he and Kelly have retained independent counsel to represent them.

“Jim Rourke does not represent me or my opinions,” Prescott said. “If they’re going to sue the City Council, I want my own counsel.”

Also on Tuesday night, Kelly failed in an attempt to have the city defer payment for former Councilman Ronald B. Hoesterey’s defense in a lawsuit filed by Prescott and Kelly. That lawsuit questioned Hoesterey’s residency at the time the council decided to move elections to April.

Prescott and Kelly maintain that the council’s Nov. 20 decision was illegal because Hoesterey had moved from the city. Other city officials say Hoesterey, who has since resigned, was a resident of Tustin at the time.