ORANGE : Group Wants Voting on Council Vacancy

If Councilman William G. Steiner wins his bid for the 67th Assembly District seat sometime this fall, City Council members will be asked to fill a council vacancy for the second time in less than a year.

But some residents would rather select a new representative themselves, and want the city to call a special election.

Carol Walters, president of the Coalition of Active Involved Residents, an umbrella organization representing nine homeowners’ groups, said residents object to another appointment because “40% of the (five-member) council” will not have been elected if Steiner leaves.

“If they keep going this way, I’m afraid they could have everyone on the council who’s been appointed and not elected,” she said.

Walters opposed the appointment in December of Councilman Mike Spurgeon, chosen to complete the two years remaining on the term of Councilman Gene Beyer, who was elected mayor. Councilwoman Joanne Coontz sided with Walters and other residents, arguing that political appointments defeated the “citizen’s right to representative government.”

The state Government Code empowers the council to fill vacant seats through appointment or by special election. The Orange council traditionally fills vacancies by appointment.

Steiner was appointed in 1988 to fill a seat vacated when Don E. Smith became mayor. Steiner was elected to the council by voters last November.

Members of Orange Pac, a lobbying arm of Walters’ organization, hope to gather enough support for a ballot initiative that would ban political appointments.

Orange Pac Chairman Bill Lewis said his group would need support from 15% of the city’s 51,000 registered voters to mandate a special election. The group would need about 5,100 signatures to have the matter placed on the ballot for the 1992 city election.

Beyer told Walters at this week’s council meeting that the council would “consider” a special election. “But we can’t do anything now,” Beyer said. “The assemblyman hasn’t been elected yet.”