ANAHEIM : Contract Extended for City Lobbyist

The city has granted its Washington lobbyist a one-year, $92,000 contract extension despite concerns that the expense is a luxury at a time when Anaheim has had to reduce employees and cut services.

E. Del Smith & Co., which has represented Anaheim since 1982, promotes the city’s interests before Congress and the Bush Administration on such topics as energy, taxation, transportation and municipal improvements.

The firm’s greatest success for Anaheim in the past year was securing a $14.8-million federal transportation grant, officials said.

“This is probably the most important time to have a legislative advocate,” said Kristine Thalman, the city’s intergovernmental relations officer. “On both the federal and state level, there is talk about taking away most of the funding cities receive. . . . The cities that succeed (in getting federal funds) are the most aggressive.”

The City Council voted 4 to 1 Tuesday to extend the contract to June 30, 1993. Councilman Tom Daly cast the dissenting vote.

“I’m not convinced the city needs to spend as much as it does for lobbyists when the city is cutting back on essential services to its citizens,” Daly said.

The city recently eliminated 32 jobs and might have to cut more than $11 million from its $136-million general fund budget if some state funds Anaheim officials are expecting do not arrive.

Resident Phillip Knypstra, a community college business professor, said he is outraged by the extension.

“They say we need a Washington, D.C., lobbyist to protect the city’s interests in the capital, but it all looks pretty phony to me,” Knypstra said. “The city bureaucrats tell me, ‘Knypstra, you’re not sophisticated enough to understand.’ Well, maybe I’m not. But what are Reps. (Christopher) Cox, (Robert K.) Dornan, (William E.) Dannemeyer and their staffs doing? What about Sen. John Seymour, our former mayor? I thought they were elected to represent the city.”