BUENA PARK : Fire Department Rates Last as Election Issue

Residents seemed to care less about the closing of their Fire Department and more about the future when it elected a new majority to the City Council last week.

The three challengers who staked their campaigns on restoring the Fire Department came in last, and a planning commissioner appears to have narrowly edged incumbent Arthur C. Brown out of his seat. But Brown will not concede to Larry T. Wieck before thousands of outstanding ballots are counted.

“Oh, no, not with only 34 votes between us,” Brown said, adding that he felt he “should have walked some of the precincts I discounted.”

Wieck said he feels certain of victory and said he would push his colleagues to be more aggressive once the election is settled.

“We can no longer sit back and wait for things to happen,” he said. “The city is a board of directors running a $35-million business.”

The winners said they believe the voters were telling them to put business growth above all else in the coming years.

For her part, top vote-getter Patsy Marshall said “the election showed nationally that constituents want their government run more like a business.” Marshall said she plans to work on a five-year plan and to begin a long study of transportation issues, which previously had been Brown’s forte.

The city is facing massive, disruptive construction projects on Beach Boulevard, the San Diego-Riverside Freeway interchange and Dale Street.

“We’re all going to have to do some research and work with the state to see what we can” to minimize the economic impact these projects have on the city, Marshall said.

Planning Commission Chairman Gerald N. Sigler, who won election to the council, said he will begin to streamline the paperwork at City Hall.