LOCAL ELECTIONS / WESTMINSTER CITY COUNCIL : ‘Accountability’ Is Keyword in Race : Three of four council seats and the office of mayor are to be filled by electorate Nov. 3.

Making the City Council more accountable to taxpayers is the catch phrase in this year’s election in which three out of four City Council seats plus the office of mayor are up for grabs.

“We need a stronger ethical code, and more disclosure to people for what the council has spent its money on,” said council candidate Charmayne Bohman in an interview.

“We need fiscal responsibility and accountability to the taxpayers, and better communication with people in the community about how tax dollars are spent,” said Councilwoman Joy L. Neugebauer, who along with Regina Hardin is challenging incumbent Charles V. Smith for mayor.

Running for the two-year seat vacated by Neugebauer in this year’s at-large election are Tony Lam, Norman Lawson, Jimmy Tong Nguyen, Margie Rice, Helena Rutkowski and Loretta Walker.

Challenging incumbents Frank Fry and Lyn Gillespie for the two available four-year seats are Bohman, Paul Perea and Wes Stiles.

Incumbents admit that a problem on the current council has been the adversarial relationship among its members, which challengers have targeted in their campaigns. While Neugebauer and Gillespie are usually on one side of an issue, Smith and Councilman Craig Schweisinger, who is not up for reelection, are on the other, with Fry as the swing vote.

“I’d like to see the City Council come together to unite the city,” Rutkowski said. “As it stands now it’s divided; it’s a gender vote. When the men say yes, the women say no. If the women say yes, the men say no. That should never be.”

Issues affecting the city include how much and where redevelopment money should be spent, as well as how to pay for improvements in the water system, which Water Department officials say needs substantial updating. Residents have been up in arms about recent rate increases, and the council has disagreed about how, or even if, money should be raised to pay for those improvements.

While Councilman Fry and Mayor Smith have proposed a revenue bond to pay for improvements out of future water revenues, both Neugebauer and Gillespie hold that the current rates are enough to make any needed capital improvements.

The council is also divided about the purchase of buildings next to city property on Beach Boulevard and 13th Street. While Smith and Fry hold that the buildings, if bought by the city Redevelopment Agency at below market prices, would provide a much-needed expansion of city office space, Neugebauer and Gillespie say that they are unnecessary.

The Westminster Fire Fighters Local 2425 is backing Neugebauer, Gillespie, Fry and challenger Rice, while the Police Assn. has endorsed Smith, Fry, and challengers Bohman and Lam.

About 20% of Westminster’s 78,000 residents are of Vietnamese descent, and this is the first time Vietnamese-Americans have run for office in the city. Both the Lam and Nguyen campaigns have registered at least 2,000 new Vietnamese-American voters.

All the candidates agreed that anti-gang and anti-crime programs should be aggressively pursued, and all said they did not want to raise taxes.

Other issues include the development of special assessment districts, which would allow public agencies to independently assess certain areas to determine the need for improvements in streets and lighting.