Ryan Quits R.P.V. Council to Join County Commission

Rancho Palos Verdes City Councilman Robert E. Ryan, who helped found the city in 1973 and has served on its council ever since, abruptly resigned Wednesday to accept an appointment to the county’s Regional Planning Commission.

Ryan’s resignation came in the form of a two-page press release in which he reminisced about his two decades in politics and noted that he could not hold elective office while serving on the planning commission.

Political friends and foes alike said the resignation came as no surprise, because Ryan has become increasingly impatient with his council colleagues and the citizens of Rancho Palos Verdes.

“He’s had a long career and . . . I think (his leaving) is very good for the city,” Councilwoman Jacki Bacharach said. “He’s been very tired of being a councilman for a long time. He’s short with our citizens, he’s impatient . . . and while he was once an effective council member, I don’t think he has been for a while.”

Mayor Susan Brooks called Ryan a “Rancho Palos Verdes institution . . . who brings an expertise to the table and a knowledge of the city’s history that will be sorely missed.”

Ryan’s first council bid in 1973--the year the city incorporated--focused on his plan for low-density development and a solid park system.

His colorful and often caustic remarks during council meetings and campaigns earned him a reputation as a scrappy political insider who hated to lose.

“I have always been the guy that people were either throwing roses at or the guy they’re throwing garbage at,” Ryan acknowledged. “I’ve not been the council’s invisible man.”

The resignation was not his first. Ryan also resigned abruptly in 1989, shortly before a City Council election in which he was seeking his fourth term in office.

At the time, Ryan said he was resigning because of unwarranted political pressure on City Clerk Jo Purcell, whom he had secretly married in 1987. Ryan withdrew his resignation a week after turning it in and went on to win reelection a few days later.

Brooks said the council will decide Tuesday night whether to leave Ryan’s seat vacant until the regular November council election. The council also could vote to stage a special election to fill the remainder of Ryan’s term--an expensive option that Brooks said the cash-strapped city is not likely to choose--or appoint someone to complete the term.