Arithmetic Outweighs Logic in Filling Jack Kelly’s Seat

Leave it to rascally Jack Kelly to create one last hornet’s nest before heading off to that Council Chamber in the Sky.

Kelly, who once used a woman reporter’s upturned palm as an ashtray, was in the midst of a four-year term on the Huntington Beach City Council when, just a day after the municipal elections last month, he suffered a stroke. He died three days later.

At first blush, it seemed like there might be a logical successor to Kelly’s seat.

But nowhere are first blushes more deceiving than in politics.

Here was the ostensible logic: In a 14-person field on Election Day, the top three vote-getters got the three available council seats. Kelly’s death then created another opening but, lo and behold, the fourth vote-getter in the election was Susie Newman, whom Kelly had appointed to the city’s Planning Commission and who had once been active in a Kelly campaign.

Therefore, much along the lines of appointing a spouse to fill an unfinished political term, one could reasonably have argued that Newman--a veritable Kelly protege as well as the next most popular vote-getter in the election--would have been a logical replacement.

Well, heh-heh, that’s why I used the phrase ostensible logic . Indeed, logic is often in the mind of the beholder.

The election produced two new council members--Victor Leipzig and Dave Sullivan. Both were backed by environmental groups, and their ascension to office swung the seven-member council from what had been considered a 4-3 pro-development majority to a 4-3 slow-growth majority. Kelly’s death left the slow-growthers with an even more solid 4-2 advantage.

Keeping that arithmetic in mind, you can probably guess what happened Monday night when the newly aligned council voted on Kelly’s replacement. Suddenly, the logic of elevating Newman to fill Kelly’s seat evaporated in a 3-3 vote, with member Linda Moulton-Patterson voting with the pro-development twosome of Earle Robitaille and Jim Silva.

With four votes needed, Newman’s appointment died. Then the council voted 4 to 2, with Moulton-Patterson’s support, to take applications for the Kelly seat for the next week and vote on a replacement Dec.21.

Here’s a hot tip: Don’t bet on Susie Newman.

Robitaille, suddenly on the short end of the council majority, thinks he smells a rat. “I think it was a done deal before it went into discussion last night,” Robitaille said Tuesday. “They have a small cadre of people already anointed who they want to put into that seat, and it’s within their power to do that now.”

Calling the majority decision not to pick Newman “highly inappropriate,” Robitaille said he won’t take part in the interview or selection process, which means that only five members will select their new mate. Robitaille says he also lost a $5 bet with fellow member Silva. “We were betting how long it would take Moulton-Patterson to do a flip-flop,” Robitaille said.

Robitaille said he lost because he bet that Moulton-Patterson would support Newman for more than one vote.

Meanwhile, over in the environmental camp, the operative mode Tuesday was: Don’t Gloat.

Adrianne Morrison, executive director of the Amigos de Bolsa Chica environmental group, said she supports the council decision not to automatically take the next best vote-getter.

Even if it were someone you endorsed, I said.

“Oh, well now . . . ,” she said, laughing, then added: “I think in all fairness that had it been Mark Porter (whom her group supported and who finished a close fifth behind Newman), we would have felt the same way. The process is what’s important.”

Already looking at a council majority, Morrison said, “We’re not after the jugular vein” when it comes to naming the new member. “There’s room for a moderate who can see both sides.”

New majority member Victor Leipzig agreed. He said he opposed Newman for other reasons and said he doesn’t “feel obligated to appoint anyone of a particular philosophical stripe” to Kelly’s seat.

Newman’s high finish is a reasonable argument for naming her, Leipzig conceded, but he noted that “the election process is not particularly fair, even in the most democratic of countries,” because of such inherent imbalances as campaign funding. He hinted that Newman far outspent Porter but finished only 700 votes ahead of him.

“Is it a slap in the face of the public to not take the No. 4 runner-up (Newman) in that situation?” Leipzig said. “I don’t think so.”

And that’s where it stands, folks. Tune in on the 21st for the final act.

So what’s the dif, you ask. Who cares about a little politicking?

Well, for one thing, the new council will be grappling next year with a proposed 4,800-home development project around the Bolsa Chica wetlands. That’s one reason environmentalists were rejoicing election night when Leipzig and Sullivan were elected.

And, yes, a 4-3 council majority sounds good right now to the environmental forces.

But not nearly as good as a 5-2 majority sounds.

MORE ON H.B. COUNCIL: A political struggle over development has been ensured. B5