LAGUNA HILLS : Council Chooses Songstad as Mayor

The City Council this week chose Councilman L. Allan Songstad Jr. as the new mayor during its annual reorganization hearing.

Songstad, who has served as a councilman since the city’s incorporation last December, was elected to the post by a unanimous vote Tuesday of the five-member council.

“We have a particularly tough year ahead of us,” Songstad said in accepting the mayor’s position. He said the city would focus on finalizing the annexation of North Laguna Hills, drafting the city’s first General Plan and improving relations with neighboring cities during his one-year term as mayor.

The new mayor pro tem, R. Craig Scott, will also serve a 12-month term ending in December, 1993. The first mayor of Laguna Hills, Melody Carruth, and mayor pro tem, Joel T. Lautenschleger, will become general members of the council.

Also during Tuesday night’s meeting, City Manager Bruce Channing issued a report detailing the city’s accomplishments in its first year of incorporation.

“One of the problems in a new city is that some of what we do is not visible and not fully appreciated by the community,” Channing said.

In its first year, the city has, among other things, assumed responsibility for traffic enforcement from the California Highway Patrol, signed a $2.6-million annual contract with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department to form a city Police Department with a 27-member staff, and passed the city’s 1992-93 operating budget with a projected $900,000 general fund surplus.

Channing’s 10-page report will be made available to the public at an event Dec. 19 at City Hall to celebrate the city’s first birthday. Several local restaurants will be providing enough food to feed hundreds of residents.