LOCAL ELECTIONS : TUSTIN : Kelly Calls Salvos of Foes ‘Cheap Slime’ as City Council Contest Heats Up

Now that the City Council election has cleared lengthy legal hurdles and will be held Tuesday, some campaign forces have come out swinging, and most of the last-minute round of mudslinging is aimed at incumbent John Kelly.

“I’ve been campaigning in Tustin for a decade, and I’ve never seen the cheap slime that these desperate candidates are generating,” Kelly said.

He has been criticized in anonymous campaign flyers and posters that have recently appeared on trash cans and telephone poles in the Old Town area, where he runs a family-owned tuxedo shop. Because the flyers were posted rather than mailed, the Political Reform Act does not require that they carry identification, a state Fair Political Practices Commission spokeswoman said.

Anti-Kelly forces have also cited, among other things, two-year-old internal police documents that accuse Kelly and Councilman Earl J. Prescott, his political ally, of harassing precinct workers on the night of an election in November, 1988.

Kelly has said no impropriety occurred, pointing out that he and Prescott were never arrested or issued citations. But leaders of the Tustin Residents Action Committee insist that the documents, obtained through a public-records request, show an abuse of power and unprofessional conduct by the councilmen.

TRAC, which is led by presidents of the city’s powerful homeowners associations, has vowed to oust Kelly and endorsed three other candidates: Leslie Ann Pontious, Charles E. (Chuck) Puckett and Jim Potts.

Kelly and Prescott said a city employee must have leaked the existence of the police accusations to TRAC. The group’s chairman, Carl Kasalek, denied the allegation.

This weekend, TRAC began distributing a flyer entitled “Tustin Tomorrow,” in which the group asks, “What happens if John Kelly wins?” The flyer criticizes past Kelly actions, including his opposition to a redevelopment project, his taping of a conversation with a city staff member and his run for Congress during his first council term.

Meanwhile, five of the candidates--Puckett, Pontious, Potts, Dennie E. Pederson and John Norman Butler--have declared that returning respectability and order to the City Council is the No. 1 campaign issue.

The candidates all said they want to alleviate traffic, reduce crime and maintain the quality of life in Tustin. However, some issues split them into two camps. While Kelly, Carole Bryant and Berklee A. Maughan would opt to move City Council elections to November and reduce the power of city staff members, the other candidates disagreed.

Until last week, when a Superior Court decision cleared the way for Tuesday’s election, the vote remained uncertain. Kelly and Prescott filed two unsuccessful lawsuits, alleging that the ordinance was invalid on the grounds that former Councilman Ronald B. Hoesterey was not a resident of Tustin when he voted for it.

There are five candidates vying for two four-year terms:

* Kelly, 28, the only incumbent. In his first reelection bid, Kelly is advocating a change in council leadership and has pledged to fight taxes and traffic.

* Puckett, 47, district sales manager for Beatrice-Hunt/Wesson and former planning commissioner. Puckett, who ran unsuccessfully for the council in 1982 and 1988, said he wants to fight traffic and expand the Police Department.

* Bryant, 41, an accountant and owner of a manufacturing company. She calls for strengthing police and solving traffic problems, which she links in great part with car-pool lanes on freeways.

* Pederson, 42, construction manager for Northrop Electronics Systems Division. Pederson said he would try to keep the city’s growth and expansion at a slow and steady pace.

* Pontious, 44, co-owner of a Tustin travel agency and former planning commissioner. Pontious said she wants to encourage redevelopment projects to raise money for the city and help pay for important road projects.

There are three candidates competing for a two-year term left vacant by Hoesterey’s resignation:

* Butler, 34, a real estate broker, wants to try to alleviate traffic congestion by routing traffic around the city rather than through it.

* Maughan, 52, a retired financial executive, wants to see more everyday involvement by residents and less power for the city manager and city attorney.

* Potts, 37, a business owner and sergeant with the Irvine Police Department, would work toward a moratorium on high-density building, start citywide recycling and build more bicycle and jogging trails.