Cityhood Backers Put Issue Ahead of Ambition : Elections: El Toro and Laguna Hills activists downplay the possibility of running for city councils and place their emphasis on having the cities created.

Craig Scott was elected twice to city councils that never existed.

The 47-year-old Laguna Hills attorney first won a council seat on the proposed city of Saddleback Valley in November, 1988, but the creation of the city itself was rejected by a a 2-1 margin.

Last year, Scott won a council seat again, this one on a proposed city of Laguna Hills. And once again, the cityhood measure was voted down, leaving Scott with a victory but no city to serve.

Now that the Local Agency Formation Commission has cleared the way for residents of El Toro and Laguna Hills to decide whether they want to create their own cities in a March 5 vote, Scott may have a third chance.

“Maybe the third time could be the charm,” said Scott, a likely candidate for the council of the proposed city of Laguna Hills.

But this time, Scott and activists from both communities say they are in no rush to enter the race for city council, insisting they are more interested in securing cityhood than in holding office.

Many activists have gone even further by saying they may decide to sit out the campaign.

“We’re still reveling in the fact that we made it through LAFCO,” said Ellen Martin, co-chair of the Citizens to Save Laguna Hills. “We haven’t planned out who is going to run as yet.”

In the March vote, candidates for city councils will run at the same time that voters are deciding if a city should be created. The idea is that if the cityhood referendum passes, councils will already have been elected and can gear up for the first day of business.

In the case of El Toro and Laguna Hills, if the cityhood referendums pass, the councils would take office in December, 1991. El Toro and Laguna Hills would become Orange County’s 30th and 31st cities, joining Laguna Niguel, Dana Point and Mission Viejo as other South County areas that have incorporated in the past three years.

As in Scott’s case, people who run for office in cityhood elections run the risk of finding themselves victorious but without a place to serve. And with the El Toro and Laguna Hills referendums still almost six months off, observers say the hesitancy of many people to announce for office stems from their experience in past campaigns.

“In the last two elections the concept of who was going to run for city council became too important too early,” Scott said. “We want to make sure that cityhood remains the main focus.”

Even those who opposed cityhood efforts believe the March 5 election will turn out to be a formality, however, since residents of both Laguna Hills and El Toro have overwhelmingly demonstrated that they want self-rule.

“There’s little doubt that they’ll be successful,” said James Colangelo, LAFCO’s executive officer. “They seem to have a whole lot of community support.”

In the March vote, residents from both areas will choose five city council candidates and decide “yes” or “no” on the cityhood measure. The top five vote-getters would be seated on each council.

If the Board of Supervisors approves LAFCO’s recommendation, candidates will have until mid-December to file for the office, a spokeswoman for the registrar of voters said.

By trimming the size of the proposed cities, cityhood proponents seem to have virtually assured success at the polls. In the case of Laguna Hills, for example, the large retirement community of Leisure World has been excluded from the city because of vociferous opposition there.

In El Toro, after the idea of a valleywide city was defeated, proponents came up with a less ambitious plan, slicing off the communities of Lake Forest, Aegean Hills and Laguna Hills from the original proposal. Portola Hills and the potentially tax-rich Foothill Ranch commercial development were also excluded from El Toro.

Last week, El Toro’s Community Coalition for Incorporation invited residents who are interested in running for city council to call the group’s hot line for information.

“Cityhood for El Toro is almost (certain), but it’s not a done deal,” said Helen Wilson, the group’s chairwoman. “We want as many citizens as possible to participate in the process.”

Wilson is considered a favorite for the city council but hedged on whether she would run.

“I’m torn, and I really don’t know,” Wilson said. “If I do run, it’s because I want to see some continuity in the negotiations with the county.”

While many say they remain undecided, the following is a list of some probable candidates for the Laguna Hills council:

* Scott, an attorney specializing in labor and employment law, is a key leader of the cityhood effort in Laguna Hills. Although Scott insists that he has not yet decided, several Laguna Hills residents are certain that he will run a third time.

* Melody Carruth, a Nellie Gail resident and mother of four, is a former junior high teacher and founder and co-chairwoman of the Citizens to Save Laguna Hills, a group that has advocated the formation of a Laguna Hills city. She was also a member of the Airport Site Consensus, a regional group of volunteers that lobbied against commercial use of the Marine air base in El Toro.

* L. Allan Songstad Jr., an attorney specializing in civil business litigation, who was also a co-chairman of Citizens to Save Laguna Hills and president of Nellie Gail Ranch Homeowners Assn.

* Joel Lautenschleger is a current co-chair of the Citizens to Save Laguna Hills and one of the major advocates of Laguna Hills cityhood. He is a part-owner of Mesa Verde Convalescent Hospital in Costa Mesa.

* Ellen Martin, a current co-chair of Citizens to Save Laguna Hills, was instrumental in mobilizing community support for the latest application. Martin, a mother of two, says she is more interested in continuing the cityhood campaign than running for office.

Likely candidates in El Toro include:

* Helen Wilson, president of the pro-cityhood Community Coalition for Incorporation. She was the top vote-getter when she ran for the Saddleback City Council in November, 1988. The cityhood effort failed, but Wilson continued the campaign for El Toro’s independence.

* Marcia Rudolph also won a seat on the ill-fated council for the city of Saddleback Valley. She is a member of the Saddleback Area Coordinating Council, an advisory group to the Board of Supervisors and Orange County Planning Commission on development projects.