SEAL BEACH : Voter Interest High in Hastings’ Runoff Win

The fierce election fight for a City Council seat in the Old Town district aroused voter interest.

Last week’s runoff election, won by Councilwoman Marilyn Bruce Hastings, drew about 300 more people to the polls than March’s general election, City Clerk Joanne M. Yeo said Monday.

Of the 3,300 registered voters in Old Town, 1,485 voted in the May 10 runoff, compared to 1,168 who voted in general election on March 28, Yeo said.

Yeo and others attributed the turnout to interest in the race between Hastings and businessman and teacher Jim Klisanin.

Hastings and Klisanin differed on issues ranging from development and taxes to alcohol sales on Main Street. Hastings won with 839 votes to Klisanin’s 631.

For four months, Old Town residents were bombarded with mailers, yard signs and assorted charges and countercharges.

Hastings’ victory means that all three council members who sought reelection this year will return. Mayor Gwen Forsythe, who represents the Marina Hill, and Councilman William J. Doane, who represents part of Leisure World, were reelected outright in March’s general election.

The incumbent victories came despite of backing a measure last year that more than doubled the tax residents pay on gas, electric and telephone bills.

Their election opponents criticized the tax hike, saying the council should have looked for less painful ways of balancing the city’s books. But council members countered that the tax was the only way of dealing with a budget shortfall without making massive cuts in city services, including police.

The council will decide later this year whether to extend the tax through 1995.

The terms of the two other council members--George Brown of Leisure World and Frank Laszlo of College Park East--expire in 1996.