Santa Ana Curious: Did Councilman Move Out of Town?

In the corridors of City Hall and out in the community, the question is being raised: Where is Councilman Richards L. Norton?

Norton has cleaned out his business office on Main Street and set up headquarters for his group of swap meets in Phoenix. His four-bedroom house on San Lorenzo Street is up for sale and the mail is stacking up in his letter box. Another piece of property he owns in Orange County also is on the market.

To Norton’s political foes, these are signs that the controversial councilman--driven by economic necessity--has quietly moved out of Santa Ana.

But Norton emphatically denies that he has left town and vows that he will not give up the office he fought so hard to win.

“I spent over $200,000 of my own money to become a councilman,” he said last week from his Phoenix operation, “and I certainly am not going to give up my care for the city or my hard work or my investment.”

In spite of his business arrangement that requires frequent out-of-state trips, Norton also denies that he is an absentee councilman.

“I have not moved out of my house,” he said. “I still live in Santa Ana.”

The months-long speculation over whether Norton has left town is the latest chapter in a longstanding dispute between the city’s power brokers and the maverick, 41-year-old councilman who idolizes the late actor John Wayne and sees himself as a representative of the common man.

A Norton ally, Councilman John Acosta, calls the speculation part of “the continuing saga of ‘Dump on Norton and humiliate Norton.’ ”

While Norton insists that he still lives in his San Lorenzo Street home, residents in the councilman’s neighborhood describe his stays as quick visits. Sometimes he stays a few days before leaving town again, they said.

Norton’s house is for sale, he explained, “because I lost the swap meet in Santa Ana and it’s costing me a lot of money.” Once a buyer is found, he added, he plans to move to a less expensive house or apartment.

If his political enemies intended to run him out of town, “they did,” Norton said, referring to his business, “except that I am still there.”

Still, critics assert that Norton’s absences have made him lose touch with his constituents.

Earlier this summer, city staffers dialed half a dozen telephone numbers--most of them out of town--to try to notify him of a special council meeting. Norton could not be found.

“As mayor, I am at events three to four nights a week, and I never see him,” said a political adversary, Mayor Daniel H. Young.

Some neighborhood association leaders in Norton’s Ward 6 said that while they have not seen him recently, they also do not usually work with him because the groups disagree with him on issues.

“He has been out of town quite a bit,” said Jim Walker, a co-chairman for the Sandpointe Neighborhood Assn., who is on friendly terms with Norton. “At the same time, I have had much more involvement with other council members that we can work with.”

Al Carney of the Sunwood Central Neighborhood Assn. said he doesn’t believe that Norton lives in the ward he represents.

“He cannot be reached,” Carney said, “and it’s kind of disgraceful, as far as I am concerned.”

In Norton’s defense, Acosta said that he and his colleague talk to each other on the telephone at least once a week.

“I think the guy is doing his job,” Acosta said. “I am sure he is receiving the information from constituents when they need to contact him.”

Norton said his regular attendance at twice-a-month council meetings and monthly Community Redevelopment Agency sessions demonstrates his continued commitment to the city.

“I think I spend as much or more (time) than other council members do,” Norton said, adding that he also makes an extra effort to handle complaints from constituents.

While his weekends are spent out of town managing the six swap meets he owns in California and Arizona, Norton said he could not calculate how much of the rest of the time is spent in Santa Ana.

If he’s been out of town on business during most of the past few months, Norton said, it is because “I don’t have any business in Santa Ana anymore. They took my business away from me.”

Norton’s economic base in Santa Ana began eroding in 1987, when the City Council closed his 8-year-old swap meet at Eddie West Field/Santa Ana Stadium.

Believing that the move was a political vendetta, Norton sued the city and then was slapped with a countersuit. Both sides are scheduled to go to court in December.

Norton also challenged his chief adversary, Councilman Daniel E. Griset, in the 1988 election. Norton lost that race but he squeaked past four opponents in a 1989 special election to fill a council vacancy.

In what was by then a familiar grudge match, Norton won reelection last year despite opposition from a candidate who was backed by four of the six other council members: Mayor Young, Griset, Miguel A. Pulido Jr. and Norton’s mother-in-law, Patricia A. McGuigan. A candidate who won another seat in the same election, Robert L. Richardson, also opposed Norton.

Norton’s victories at the polls, however, cost him financially.

As a council member, a conflict of interest prevented him earlier this year from renewing his city stadium concessions contract.

A swap meet at Rancho Santiago College managed by Norton’s firm also was shut down this year after a three-year court battle that gave the City Council the right to ban outdoor swap meets.

Norton also has paid politically.

His marriage in 1990 to McGuigan’s daughter became mired in controversy when he accepted wedding gifts worth more than $25, even though a city ordinance forbids gifts over that limit from persons “financially interested” in doing business with the city.

Earlier this year, in an apparent attempt to reduce Norton’s political clout, the mayor led a council purge of Norton’s appointees to advisory commissions. Only Acosta sided with Norton.

Given the constant struggle, friends and critics alike wonder why Norton would want to remain on the council.

“It’s very frustrating,” he conceded, “but if everyone did what the mayor wants them to do, the town would be in sad shape.”