ORANGE COUNTY VOICES : Void Measure D and Get Irvine Elections Back on Track

How can Irvine voters clean up the incredible election law mess left over from the repudiated regime of former Mayor Larry Agran? They can do that Tuesday by voting yes on election reform--Yes on Measures E and F.

Nearly everyone agrees that this mess must be fixed--nearly everyone except Larry Agran loyalist Mark Petracca, who attempts to confuse the issues with high-sounding arguments about democracy.

Democracy did just fine in Irvine for over a decade. Then voters, with the best of intentions, allowed for the direct election of mayor.

Since that time, the city has been mired in controversy, litigation, division and name-calling, all of which can be traced to the tortured political maneuvering that gave us Measure D.

Measure D, conceived and promoted by Agran, was part of his plot to shift power away from the city manager form of government and into a strong mayor. The ill will and confusion that resulted from Measure D has damaged Irvine badly.

(Measure E would repeal the charter provision that calls for the direct election of the mayor and provide for a five-member City Council. Measure F would move city elections from June to November to coincide with general elections.)

To fix the mess and restore voter confidence in the city’s election process, the City Council placed an election reform package (Measures E and F) before the voters.

Lest there be no mistake regarding the suspicious and questionable nature of the Agran-inspired Measure D, consider what the Court of Appeal had to say about Measure D in its ruling--favorable to the city--in the recent case of Gaido vs. City of Irvine:

“We . . . have grave doubts about the constitutionality of Irvine code section IB 207 (which established the direct election of mayor). . . . The procedure which allows election of three council members when voters are only allowed two votes is of dubious constitutionality.”

Anyone who doubts the intentions of Measure D should recall that within three months after Irvine elected its first mayor, the city manager of 17 years, Bill Woollett, was out of a job.

Coincidence? Hardly. It was just the beginning of a series of questionable actions that saw more and more power shifted to the mayor.

Irvine voters had enough and said no to Larry Agran last June. Now they have the chance to say yes to meaningful and complete election reform--election reform that will return the city to predictable, understandable elections.

Don’t forget that Irvine voters twice, in good faith, went to the streets to petition for an election, believing they were acting in accordance with Measure D. Twice they were turned back because of the flaws in Measure D that we are only too familiar with. As surely as poll guards in an Assembly district intimidated voters in 1988, the effects of Measure D have injured the faith of Irvine voters in the democratic process.

We can restore the faith and ensure even greater participation in elections by moving the Irvine election--as nearly every other city in the county has done--to November, when voter turnout is higher.

After Agran was elected in a low turnout election in April of 1978, he resisted efforts to move the election to coincide with the June primary. Agran understood that an ideologically motivated, committed minority has the best chance to seize control of a city like Irvine in elections that draw only a small percentage of the voters.

I hope voters will remember that one of my first acts upon election as mayor was to champion an election reform package that will return our city--after so much unnecessary grief and frustration--to a predictable system of municipal elections that people can understand and believe in.

In an era of increasing voter cynicism, doesn’t that make sense? I think it does, and I believe voters will agree on Election Day by voting yes on E and F.