City Clerk Takes the Hot Seat in Hawthorne : Politics: Appointment of Richard L. Mansfield fails to quell controversy involving his predecessor. Critics say that the vacancy should have been filled through an election.

When Richard L. Mansfield was sworn in as Hawthorne city clerk this week, some in the audience hissed and two council members abruptly left their seats and headed for the bathroom.

“I was a little upset,” Councilwoman Betty J. Ainsworth said of her decision to walk out of the chambers. “I couldn’t handle it anymore.”

So began Mansfield’s first night as city clerk, a normally lackluster administrative post that recently has become the hot seat in Hawthorne politics.

Mansfield’s appointment to the part-time position Monday night was supposed to end controversy kicked up by the discovery that his predecessor had been drawing a $600-a-month city paycheck while living in Hawaii.

Instead, it ignited yet another debate over whether the vacancy should have been filled through an election, instead of by council appointment.

Mayor Steve Andersen, a political ally of Mansfield who was among the 3-2 majority that voted to appoint him, could barely contain his anger about the ongoing brouhaha.

“There are thousands and thousands of appointments every day,” Andersen said. “But to hear some people talk you would think . . . there was some midnight cabal bent on doing evil.”

Mansfield’s ascendancy to the position came less than three weeks after former clerk Patrick E. Keller faxed in his resignation from Hawaii.

Keller, who was first elected to the four-year office in 1981, said he had wanted to step down ever since he moved to Hawaii in 1987, but that he felt obligated to run again in 1989 because no one else expressed interest in the post.

When the City Council asked for resumes of those wanting to serve the remainder of Keller’s term, 17 people applied for the job, including a minister, an accountant, a high school teacher, an aerospace manager and a college student.

Mansfield won the support of Andersen and Councilmen Charles Bookhammer and David M. York. Council members Ainsworth and Larry Guidi voted against his selection, favoring instead a special election to fill the post.

Mansfield, a retired A T & T manager, said he has lived in Hawthorne for the past 14 years and has no vacation homes outside the city. He served on the Inglewood City Council between 1971 and 1978 and, after moving to Hawthorne in 1978, made three unsuccessful bids for City Council: in February, 1983; November, 1985, and April, 1986.

During last year’s election, Mansfield organized Andersen’s absentee-ballot effort, which helped Andersen win by a mere 34 votes.

Council members who supported Mansfield’s selection said that his experience in public office gave him the expertise that the other applicants lacked.

“He is very qualified,” Bookhammer said. “He has had 27 years of experience in supervising personnel and he is a retired person who has the personal time and energy to spend” in the job.

They also argued that the city can’t afford to hold an election this November for a position that expires in a year.

“We don’t have a lot of extra money to set aside,” Bookhammer said. “Even if it is $15,000, I think it is $15,000 that is wasted, especially when you think it is to put a person in office for one year and one year only.”

But Ainsworth and Guidi, both of whom said they had received dozens of calls from citizens urging them not to appoint anyone to the post, said a special election would be worth the expense.

“By doing this (holding an election), we keep the controversy down,” Ainsworth said before the vote. “I think the people of this community should have a choice.”

She also argued that Mansfield’s appointment would give him the advantage of incumbency in next year’s election.

Despite the controversy, Mansfield, who left on Tuesday for a long-scheduled two-week vacation in Poland, remained enthusiastic.

Although Mansfield declined to speculate on how much time he will spend at City Hall, he said he considers his attendance at City Council meetings a minimum requirement for the position.

“You have to be here for meetings,” Mansfield said. “That’s the minimum standard and is one that wasn’t fulfilled over the last few years.”

He said he did not expect to make any sweeping changes in how the office is run.

“I don’t think it’s that kind of job,” Mansfield said. “It’s not a policy kind of position. It’s an administrative position.”

And though he said he was hurt by the lack of support from Ainsworth and Guidi, he was philosophical about the controversy generated by his appointment.

“There always has to be a loser,” Mansfield said. “I hated to see it happen--the dissatisfaction and divisions--but I honestly hope things get healed over.”