Cypress Council Fires City Attorney : Government: Officials vote 3 to 1 to terminate former congressman Jerry Patterson after five years of service and a history of disagreements over his legal advice.

City Atty. Jerry M. Patterson, a former congressman who spent the last five years representing this city, was fired Monday night by the City Council.

In a 3-1 decision, the council officially confirmed a vote taken two weeks ago in closed session to replace Patterson with John E. Cavanaugh, an associate at Burke, Williams & Sorensen, where Patterson also works. Mayor Richard Partin, who was not at the closed-session meeting, abstained.

Partin said Patterson was fired for several reasons, including some unpopular decisions he has made.

“In the past there were some decisions he had rendered that didn’t sit well with some council members,” Partin said. “There were members on the council just not comfortable with Mr. Patterson. . . . They just lost faith in him over the years.”

One of the “sore spots,” Partin confirmed, was advice Patterson gave to the council in 1989 that led in part to the controversial seating of current Councilman Walter K. Bowman. At the time, the council was in the process of filling a vacancy left by former Mayor William Davis. Acting on the advice of Patterson, who said that an abstention was not a vote in the majority, two members voted for Bowman and two abstained.

Bowman subsequently took the issue to court and won. The judge ruled that under Cypress city code the abstentions must be counted as yes votes. The city did not appeal the court’s ruling.

Patterson said he didn’t think there was anything specific that led to the council’s choice to replace him. But when asked about the Bowman vote, he acknowledged that it might have been a factor.

“I would expect that at any time one would like or not like the legal advice one gives them,” Patterson said. “I think that a member or so of the council had a problem going back to a couple of things . . . but I think that was just a part of the whole thing.”

Patterson said that Cavanaugh, who filled in recently while he underwent knee surgery, was doing a good job and it freed him to do other things. He recently was replaced as city attorney in Lake Forest, at his request, he said. Patterson also serves as city attorney for the city of Dana Point. The firm he works with also acts as city attorney for several other cities in Southern California, including Chino Hills and Mission Viejo.

Patterson, who was defeated by Robert K. Dornan in the 1984 congressional election, served as head counsel during some of the most tumultuous times in this bedroom community’s history, including the fight over the development of the area surrounding the Los Alamitos Race Course.

Councilman Bowman, who cast the dissenting vote in firing Patterson, said he felt that the closed session vote two weeks ago was unfair because it was before the Nov. 3 election, and two council members were up for reelection. “The way it was handled was not right,” Bowman said. “You don’t make this kind of a decision before an election.”

Councilwoman Joyce C. Nicholson said the council’s action was fair and impartial and that Patterson had “several opportunities” to state his case.