Ousted Planning Officials Fail to Regain Their Seats

The City Council on Tuesday refused to reappoint two ousted planning commissioners, replacing them with a pair of longtime community activists.

Julie Mayer, a member of the city’s Budget Commission and its Art Council, and Mitchell Caldwell, founder and president of the Anaheim Neighborhood Assn., were appointed by a split council to fill the two years left in the Planning Commission terms of Stephen Bristol and Bob Zemel, a former council candidate.

Zemel and Bristol were fired Dec. 15 and had applied for reappointment.

“Mitch and Julie are proven community leaders and they will help push the city in a positive direction,” Mayor Tom Daly said. He said he pushed for Zemel and Bristol’s ouster from the city’s most prestigious advisory board because “simply put, I no longer had confidence in their advice.”

“This is not a popularity contest and the appointment does not go to the group that can yell the loudest,” Daly said.

The commission advises the council on major construction proposals throughout this city of more than 260,000.

Zemel and Bristol called their firings “political.” Zemel accused Daly and Councilmen Irv Pickler and Frank Feldhaus of meeting in secret to decide their fate, which he said would be a violation of the state’s open meeting laws.

“It’s so obvious that’s what they did,” Zemel said. “Anyone can see that.”

Daly, Feldhaus and Pickler vehemently denied that they violated the law.

“I told anybody who asked before (November’s) election that I wanted to make some changes on our boards and commissions,” Daly said.

Zemel and Bristol were fired last month on a 3-2 council vote. Zemel finished third in November’s council election, several thousand votes behind Daly and Feldhaus, who were elected. Both supported then-Mayor Fred Hunter, whom Daly also defeated for that post.

Hunter, who remains a councilman despite losing the mayor’s race, voted to retain Bristol and Zemel and also accused Daly, Pickler and Feldhaus of deciding the pair’s fate in secret.

“It’s pretty clear to me that there was collusion,” Hunter said. “They got together before the meeting to decide how this would all go.”

Daly said he can point to several commissioners who were fired for similar reasons during Hunter’s four years as mayor.

“If you are on a commission and you decide to get involved in politics, you better be sure you are on the side that wins,” Daly said.

Daly said Anaheim would avoid controversy if each council member was given one appointment to each commission, a system used by the other cities in Orange County.