Judge to Rule on Convicted Mayor’s Post : Courts: Jurist ends indecision. He will determine if Brea’s Ronald Isles must leave office for conflict of interest.

A Municipal Court judge ended nearly two weeks of confusion Tuesday by saying he will be the one to determine whether Mayor Ronald E. Isles should be removed from office following his conviction on conflict-of-interest charges.

“The ball is in my court,” said North Orange County Municipal Judge Stephen J. Sundvold. “It’s my responsibility to determine if there’s a vacancy.”

The judge scheduled a hearing for today with Deputy Dist. Atty. James J. Mulgrew and Isles’ attorney, Thomas Avdeef, to discuss the matter.

Sundvold’s statements clarified a complicated situation that developed shortly after the mayor pleaded guilty Oct. 9 to misdemeanor charges of conflict of interest and failure to fully report his financial holdings.

Under the plea agreement prosecutors dropped 14 charges against Isles and told him that he could remain in office until the end of his term on Dec. 1.

Shortly after the plea, however, Mulgrew discovered a government code section that appeared to call for the mayor’s immediate removal from office upon the conviction of a crime involving his official duties.

The prosecutor notified Isles of the statute and gave him an opportunity to withdraw his plea. Isles did not try to withdraw his plea but instead asked the judge to suspend his conviction until after his mayoral term. The judge declined Isles’ request.

Since that hearing, nobody has been certain who was supposed to take the lead in removing Isles from office. Mulgrew said it was up to city officials to do it, while the city attorney claimed that the burden is on the prosecutor and judge.

Isles, who could not be reached for comment, did not attend Tuesday night’s City Council meeting. The matter was discussed, however, by Mayor Pro Tem Burnie Dunlap, who told the audience that the mayor’s fate was in the court’s jurisdiction. The city manager added that Isles will not participate in the next few meetings.

Despite Isles’ absence, several members of the audience called on the City Council to remove him from office.

“This criminal that you call mayor was convicted of a crime,” one resident told the panel.

Isles, meanwhile, has given no indication that he intends to leave.

Isles, who was elected to the City Council in 1980 and 1988 and twice served as mayor, contends that he did nothing wrong. He has said the violations were only careless errors and that he reaped no financial gain.

Isles pleaded guilty to three criminal counts involving action he took between 1989 and 1991 that benefited entities in which he had a financial interest and four counts involving loans that he failed to report on economic-interest disclosure forms.

Isles was placed on three years’ probation and ordered to pay fines and assessments totaling $13,500, according to court documents. Also, the agreement states that Isles cannot be a candidate for elective office or act as a lobbyist for four years.