SANTA ANA : Council Rejects Most of Acosta’s Reforms

The City Council on Monday rejected the bulk of Councilman John Acosta’s sweeping ethics and election reform proposals, refusing to place all but two of them on the November ballot.

Voters will be able to consider two of Acosta’s proposed City Charter amendments. One would prohibit board and commission members from serving as treasurers for political action committees; the other would forbid the mayor and council members from voting on matters relating to campaign contributors who donated more than $250 within the previous 12 months. Both proposals won unanimous council support.

Acosta’s seven-page proposal included:

* Limiting the mayor to two four-year terms, as council members are limited under current law. The mayor now runs every two years and is not limited as to the number of terms.

* Electing council members from districts, replacing the current system under which they are required to live in the wards they represent but are elected citywide.

* Reducing the city manager’s severance pay to six months, instead of relying on the current contract, under which City Manager David N. Ream would be entitled to three years’ pay.

All three provisions failed on 5-2 votes, with Acosta and Councilman Richards L. Norton supporting them. Another provision, which would have prohibited council members from appointing commission and committee members from outside their district, was rejected 4 to 3, with Acosta, Norton and Mayor Daniel H. Young supporting it.

Before the votes, Acosta called on the council to approve his entire plan and let the voters decide whether it should be implemented.

But Young rejected that suggestion. “You’re not elected to push a button, you’re elected to think,” he said. “If it’s a lousy idea and you think it’s a lousy idea, you have to have the courage of your convictions and vote against it.”

He also argued against district elections, saying that under the current system, “every voter in town holds all the council members accountable. Ward elections disenfranchise the voters of this city.”