City Halls Face Shake-Ups as O.C. Incumbents Opt Out

The Nov. 8 elections will signal a changing of the guard for many city councils in Orange County.

Several well-known incumbents were absent from the lists of candidates who filed to run for office by Friday’s deadline. Among them are Santa Ana Mayor Daniel H. Young; Huntington Beach Mayor Linda Moulton Patterson; Laguna Beach council members Robert F. Gentry and Lida Lenney; Orange Mayor Gene Beyer; and San Juan Capistrano Councilman Gary L. Hausdorfer.

But a small army of candidates is seeking to fill those and other open seats throughout the county. In all, 215 people will vie for the 73 available council seats and six mayoral posts on Nov. 8.

The number of candidates will grow, since many cities have extended the filing deadline to Wednesday. That extension occurred automatically when incumbents had not filed for reelection by Friday’s deadline.

Several larger cities, such as Anaheim, Santa Ana and Huntington Beach, have especially crowded fields. But none is larger than Fullerton, where an unprecedented election oddity will occur.

Fullerton voters not only will decide among an array of candidates during a special election on Oct. 18, but they will have to do so again in the regular election a few weeks later.

As a result, two newly elected council members will have served a mere two weeks on the council before facing reelection. This situation evolved when three council members who voted for a 2% utility tax last year were recalled by voters in June.

Donald Tanney, Orange County’s registrar of voters, said he can’t remember a similar occurrence in the history of the county.

“I don’t know if the voters understood the timing of this, which ended up putting the elections back to back,” Tanney said. “It’s an additional cost, but the people wanted to recall these folks, and voted that way to get rid of them at the earliest possible date.”

The terms of Mayor A.B. (Buck) Catlin and Councilwoman Molly McClanahan would have expired in November anyway. But after winning, recall organizers went to court and forced a special Oct. 18 election rather than waiting and consolidating the two elections. This will cost the city an estimated $107,000, according to City Clerk Anne M. York.

The term of the third recalled council member, Don Bankhead, would not have ended until 1996, so whoever is elected on Oct. 18 to replace him will serve two years, provided the candidate can win reelection on Nov. 8.

Although recalled council members cannot run to replace themselves in the special election, Bankhead will be a candidate in the Nov. 8 election and could win his old seat back. Catlin and McClanahan are staying out of the race.

Tanney said such a scenario will never happen again because of a new state law, effective next year, which will require that voters recall and replace candidates during the same election.

Fullerton City Attorney R.K. Fox called the Oct. 18 election “a waste of money and a source of confusion.”

“I think it makes us look silly to have two elections within three weeks of each other,” he said. “But, we respect the ruling of the court.”

In Westminster, council members who survived a similar recall in June will go before the voters once again. Mayor Charles V. Smith and council members Craig Schweisinger and Tony Lam all are seeking reelection.

Another election oddity will occur in Anaheim.

Although three seats are open, only two will be filled this election, because of a charter amendment passed in 1992 changed the selection process of the city’s mayor.

In the past, only council members could run for mayor. But beginning this year, anyone can run for that office.

Mayor Tom Daly is running for reelection against retired businessman Curtis A. Stickler.

If Daly were to lose the mayoral race, he would retain his council seat for two more years, eliminating one of the open seats. If Daly is elected and a third seat remains open, the City Council will have 60 days to appoint someone to the position. If they fail to do so, then the city must hold a special election.

“It’s a little confusing because this is the first year, but it will be easier in the long run,” said Assistant City Clerk Ann Sauvageau.

Seats are up for grabs in cities where several longtime incumbents are stepping down, either by choice or because of term limits.

In Laguna Beach, the departure from the council of Gentry, the first openly gay elected official in Orange County, and Lenney, an environmental activist, means the panel could lose its liberal majority; there may be a forceful challenge in this election from more conservative candidates with a different political agenda.

In Santa Ana, seven candidates have announced their intention to replace Young, who has served as mayor since 1988.

In Huntington Beach, four of seven council spots are open, including Patterson’s, who is running for the 2nd District seat on Orange County Board of Supervisors.

One incumbent who doesn’t want to leave office is Fountain Valley council member Laurann Cook, whose decision to seek a third term has sparked some controversy.

Cook is running again despite a ballot measure passed by voters in 1984 that limits council members to two four-year terms. However, since Fountain Valley is a general law city, the term limits cannot be enforced under state law.

A similar controversy occurred two years ago in Fountain Valley when Councilman George B. Scott was elected to the council for the sixth time despite the term limits ballot measure.

“The voters have the right to make the decision this election as well,” Cook said.

Contributing to this report were Bill Billiter, Debra Cano, Bert Eljera, Alan Eyerly, Lynn Franey, Jon Nalick and Mimi Ko.

* SCHOOL ELECTIONS: A number of activists will take their case to voters Nov. 8. B1

* CANDIDATES’ ROLL CALL: List of city, school and college district candidates. B10-11