LOCAL ELECTIONS / PLACENTIA : Finding Benefits and Liabilities in City Council Race : The two incumbents say they’ve got the experience to get the job done, but their five challengers are demanding more accountability and fewer perks.

The City Council election has shaped up as a challenge of old and new political values, with five challengers calling for more accountability and two incumbents relying on their council experience to keep them in office.

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Council critics, including several who are on the ballot, have hammered the current council for increasing the utility tax from 3% to 4%, lax reporting of city-reimbursed expenses, taking advantage of city benefits and failing to respond to inquiries from the public.

Council members generally defend their expense reporting, benefit package and the utility tax, which was increased 18 months ago.

Councilwoman Maria Moreno, whose term is not up, has requested a review of the council’s retirement benefits with an eye toward discontinuing them.

Howard Kay, a computer consultant and activist who spends nearly as much time at the microphone at brief City Council meetings as any single council member, wants term limits for elected officials and a moratorium on development.

The city needs to re-examine its direction after 10 years of rapid development, be more responsive to residents and use the referendum process to give residents a say in what is built, he said.

“I’m tired of these developers coming in here, making their money and then leaving,” he said, adding the city should concentrate on luring buyers for empty homes in the city before any new housing is built.

Kay, 52, has often complained that residents who address the council at meetings never get answers, and pledged to respond to citizen inquiries and complaints if elected.

Challenger Dale Goodman, 52, wants access for the disabled--to public and private places. She uses a wheelchair and is a retired health-care administrator who has served on the city’s Advisory Committee on the Disabled.

The council should push merchants to make their businesses accessible to the disabled to “start catering to a handicapped population that has a lot of disposable income” although it is often perceived as less affluent, she said.

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She opposes term limits but wants to eliminate benefits like city-supplied cars for department heads and retirement and family health-care benefits for council members who have served five years and reached the age of 55.

Mayor Norman Z. Eckenrode, 56, defends the benefits, saying city officials don’t get car allowances and their stipend is meager at $150 a month for serving on the council and $60 a month for sitting on the Redevelopment Agency.

Eckenrode, who owns a pizza parlor and has served on the council for 12 years, has drawn fire for having a $1,823 physical examination at city expense in August, 1993--just after he turned 55. He said he will vote to keep the health benefits if the matter goes before the council.

Noting that property tax transfers have depleted city coffers, Eckenrode said it “is going to take an experienced council to guide the city” through the coming tough financial times.

His highest priority is using housing assistance to encourage a stake in the community, he said. Continuing the redevelopment agency’s first-time buyer and home rehabilitation assistance programs would serve that end, he said.

With only 350 to 400 acres of undeveloped land left in the city, land use decisions must be made carefully by people with experience, he said.

Councilwoman Carol Downey, a second-grade teacher, has been on the council for eight years. Like Eckenrode, she said the city is hamstrung by state and federal mandates on spending, so the city needs experienced council representatives to allocate the balance if its funds.

“We’ve suffered quite a loss to the state in the last three years. It will be quite a challenge to maintain the quality of services in the face of state budget cuts,” she said.

She also cited low-income housing programs and a city business retention program as keys to improving the city and building its tax base.

Political newcomer L. Ray Estes, 41, agrees that preserving the quality of services within a tight budget is the city’s biggest ongoing challenge.

The city can and should create programs for youth and foster private programs, he said, which would reduce gang and youth problems.

“The city can be supportive and if they have money they can set aside for that. Right now that’s pretty hard. We have to do it without shortchanging the police and fire departments,” he said. “But if we don’t do something for youth now, they will be the problems for those departments later.”

Estes has worked with the Boys and Girls Club, the Casa Placentia youth program and is a volunteer in a local homeless assistance program. He is a shipping manager for an Anaheim plastics company.

Charles Chamberlain, 32, the youngest candidate, is a risk manager for a Long Beach-based company that builds and maintains petrochemical refineries.

His platform is a “three-point plan for better government,” which includes restructuring city management and budgeting processes. He also favors allowing lower level managers more discretion in decision-making and increasing community outreach.

Like Kay, he pledged to be more responsive to the electorate if elected. He said he would hold monthly meetings with residents to hear their views and explain upcoming council issues.

Chamberlain said he wants city employees to compete with their colleagues in efficiency and cost-savings programs. He would reward the most efficient departments with additional money to spend on programs.

He favors term limits, stripping council members of city medical and retirement benefits, planning based on 10-year budget projections and relying more on community-based committees.

James K. Itow, 49, is a Orange County Superior Court manager in charge of equipment maintenance. He said that 10 years in the military and 20 with the court system have readied him to cut through bureaucratic red tape and he would bring a fresh perspective to the job.

The council should revise city codes to be less restrictive to business, such as ending a ban on drive-through restaurants, Itow said.

“The council can make it easier for businesses to open and make it . . . on their own,” he said. “They’re given certain parameters to open a business, and by the time it’s ready to go, (city officials) change the rules again.”

Itow said his pet project would be filling the gap left when the dial-a-ride program for seniors folded, possibly by purchasing a city van for senior and youth programs. He also wants the city to work with the school district to maintain play areas for children.