LOCAL ELECTIONS : IRVINE CITY COUNCIL : Sheridan, Agran Seek More Than the Mayor’s Job

In some ways, asking voters to choose between longtime council foes Larry Agran and Sally Anne Sheridan in the mayor’s race is like asking them to settle the city’s longest-running argument.

Tuesday’s election underscores the continuing power struggle between Agran and Sheridan. With two council seats also up for election, the victor in the mayor’s race has the potential of capturing a council majority.

As such, both Agran and Sheridan have aligned themselves with a slate of council candidates.

Sheridan’s slate is composed of Barry Hammond, a professional mediator, and Art Bloomer, a former commanding general of the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station.

Agran’s slate is composed of incumbent Councilman Cameron Cosgrove and candidate Mary Ann Gaido, chairwoman of the Planning Commission and a former councilwoman.

Also running for the council are Robert West, a real estate consultant, and Albert Nasser, a retired lawyer. Neither is aligned with Agran or Sheridan.

“This is the first time (Agran) has really been up against somebody who is his equal,” Sheridan said, pointing to her six-year tenure on the council and a list of local government activities dating back to 1974.

Agran, first elected to the council in 1978 and who became the city’s first elected mayor in 1988, is not underestimating the competition.

“There is no question that this is a serious challenge, and I’ve taken it seriously from the beginning,” he said.

Observers say the bitterly fought mayoral race has spawned one of the nastiest campaigns in the city’s 18 years, with the battle often shifting between debate over local issues to scrutiny of the candidates’ personal business.

The final week of the campaign saw several mailers against Agran, including one sent by the prestigious Lincoln Club, a group of wealthy and powerful business people. The club has spent $25,000 to date on mailers against Agran, according to a financial disclosure statement dated Wednesday.

“The Lincoln Club is trying to buy an Irvine election for their favorite pro-development candidate, Sally Anne Sheridan,” Agran said. “This massive scale for donations from the outside is just unprecedented in this city.”

Another anti-Agran mailer sent by an unidentified source contains an article reprinted from the right-wing publication The American Spectator, which describes Agran as an “evil emperor” with ties to Assemblyman Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica) and socialist politics--a label that the incumbent mayor vehemently decries.

“It’s what I call the devil theory of politics,” Agran said. “When the opposition is on the wrong side of all the issues, they instead are left with inventing devils to explain why the voters repudiate their views in election after election and support people like me, who try to focus on the problems of the present and the possibilities of the future.”

Sheridan, often the lone dissenter on the five-member council, characterizes herself as a no-nonsense candidate who wants to alter what she thinks are Agran’s all-too-lofty ideals--that Irvine should be an international pacesetter on economics and the environment.

Instead, Sheridan said, she believes in focusing on what she calls “potholes,” the nuts and bolts of everyday city issues.

“Local government has to deal with potholes, not just literally but in the maintenance of a city and in terms of working with other communities to make sure our transportation systems, our hazardous wastes and our sewers are taken care of,” she said. “These are the boring, tedious long-term jobs we are ‘hired’ to do.”

Agran called this the “can’t do” method of government. He said cities across America can use local policies to collectively shape the future of the nation. Based on this ideal, the Irvine council has enacted a ban on chemicals known to deplete the Earth’s ozone layer, has started a successful curbside recycling program and is trying to attract a World Trade Center through its new International Affairs Department.

“I think the issue is whether we’re going to continue to move forward on a wide range of fronts, particularly environmental in character,” Agran said, “or whether we’re going to go back to the sleepy way we were dealing with some of these serious problems, and basically leave it to the Irvine Co. (the city’s largest landholder) and a few big developers to chart our future.”

Sheridan said she would like to eliminate the $10,000-per-year, directly elected mayor’s post, which is the result of a 1987 ballot measure.

“I’d like to depoliticize City Hall,” Sheridan said, adding that she wants to review the role of 66 city committees and commissions, as well as such new departments as International Affairs and Cultural Affairs.

“If I become the mayor, I would probably do a workshop on healing, on getting the staff to feel good again about what they do,” Sheridan said. “My role for the next four years would be to heal the city.”

The six candidates vying for the two council seats have found the mayoral race affecting their own campaigns.

“The first question I’m asked,” Hammond said, “is, ‘Which side of the fence are you on in relation to Larry Agran?’ People generally have an opinion about him, one way or another.”

Other candidates worry that the mayoral battle is obscuring the issues.

“The people that I talk to are more concerned about the traffic and growth issues than they are about the squabbles of the mayoral candidates,” Bloomer said.

Nasser is stressing that city officials should avoid the appearance of conflicts between public and private business.

Cosgrove, elected to the council in 1988, said he stands on his record as a council member.

West said he would not run for office if he was allied with either mayoral candidate.

“The real question is, can the (opposing) parties come out of the election and work together?” West said. “There are real issues, and they are issues that are not based on personality.”

IRVINE CITY COUNCIL

Mary Ann Gaido Age: 48. Occupation: Human relations specialist. Background: Graduated from Rosary College in Chicago in 1965. Served on the Irvine City Council from 1976-84. Is currently the chairwoman of the Irvine Planning Commission. She has also been vice chair of the board of directors for Irvine Theatre. Issues: Wants to terminate helicopter overflights and control sprawl and traffic congestion; favors construction on the monorail project; wants to force the federal government to quickly clean up the underground pollution plume confronting the city; wants the Yale Avenue bridges to remain as they are.

Art Bloomer Age: 57. Occupation: Vice president of American Protective Services Inc. Background: Served for 31 years in the Marine Corps, including a stint as commanding general at the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station. Has served as finance commissioner from 1988 to present and as public safety commissioner from 1986-88. Also served on the Red Cross board of directors from 1984 to present and on the United Way board from 1984-88. Issues: Believes the biggest issues facing Irvine are growth and traffic; is against the urban village idea; favors of the expansion of the Yale Avenue bridges, in part because the expansion would coincide with the general plan.

Robert West Age: 50. Occupation: Real estate consultant. Background: Graduated from Stanford University with a bachelor of arts degree in economics in 1961 and with an MBA in 1970. Served on the city’s first Planning Commission from 1972-73 and on the City Council from 1974-76. Is an adjunct professor at the University of Southern California’s business school, an Irvine Housing Opportunities Board member and an Irvine Sports Committee member. Issues: Believes greater attention should be paid to fiscal management of the city; favors a continued Marine presence at the Tustin base, but wants them to take their helicopters elsewhere; is against the concept of an urban village; favors the expansion of the Yale Avenue bridges.

Cameron Cosgrove Age: 32. Occupation: Incumbent; insurance executive at Pacific Mutual. Background: City Council member for two years, seated after a protracted court battle. Graduated from Cal State Long Beach with a degree in business administration. Has served on the finance and planning commissions and co-authored a plan to curtail the release of chlorofluorocarbons in Irvine. Issues: Wants to restore the San Joaquin freshwater marsh next to UC Irvine and expand recycling programs; wants to make strides in the effort to build a monorail, saying that Irvine is way behind other cities in public transportation; wants the Yale Avenue bridges to remain as they are.

Barry Hammond Age: 38. Occupation: Professional mediator. Background: Graduated from Cal State Long Beach with degrees in finance and manpower management. An unsuccessful mayoral candidate in 1988. Is the producer of “Irvine Today,” a community access program. Has been an executive board member of the Praise Symphony Orchestra and an Irvine Baseball Assn. coach. Issues: Is strongly against the idea of an urban village, saying the proposal is not a plan but a hallucination; stresses that Irvine needs to complete its roads and overcrossings and that local issues must be handled before taking on issues with an international tinge; supports the expansion of the Yale Avenue bridges.

Albert Nasser Age: 71. Occupation: Attorney. Background: Graduated from Stanford University with a law degree and from the University of Southern California with a degree in international relations. Issues: Believes spending on City Council races has gotten out of control and favors a $1,000 spending limit; believes that a code of ethics should be established for elected city officials, their appointees and high-ranking members of city government; believes the Yale Avenue bridges should remain limited to pedestrians and emergency vehicles.

IRVINE MAYOR

Larry Agran Age: 45. Occupation: Incumbent; part-time executive director of the Center for Innovative Diplomacy; attorney. Background: Graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1969. Served as legal counsel to the state Senate Health and Welfare Committee before moving to Irvine in 1975. was elected to Irvine City Council in 1978 and appointed mayor from 1982-84 and 1986-88. Became city’s first elected mayor in 1988. Issues: Wants to preserve open space and the environment, enhance Irvine’s international status and create a nucleus for countywide mass transit; opposes widening of Yale Avenue pedestrian bridges.

Sally Anne Sheridan Age: 54. Occupation: Councilwoman; real estate broker. Background: Served 10 years on Irvine Community Services Commission, helping to found Irvine Theatre. Elected to the council in 1984. Ran a Costa Mesa-based, international skateboarding group in early 1970s. Holds a nursing degree from Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center; did graduate work at Harvard University in the 1950s. Issues: Wants to eliminate the directly elected mayor system and review functions of the city’s six commissions and 66 committees; believes council should focus more on local problems, such as traffic circulation, and less on international affairs and Pacific Rim business; supports widening of Yale Avenue pedestrian bridges.

* COUNTY RACES

Orange County campaigners break into their homestretch runs. A1