Changing of the Guard Comes to Anaheim City Council : Government: Three veterans are leaving. New panel faces possible loss of Rams as well as decisions on stadium, Disney development.

The most dramatic revamping of the City Council in 70 years is about to take place as 12-year incumbent Irv Pickler, former Mayor Fred Hunter, and former city manager Bob D. Simpson attend their final council meeting as members Tuesday.

The city will have a largely inexperienced council when new members Lou Lopez and Bob Zemel are sworn in later this month. A fifth member will then have to be appointed by the council or chosen in a special election. When the new council is sworn, Mayor Tom Daly, elected in 1988, will be its most experienced member.

The new council takes over from a development-minded panel whose members bickered publicly and waged bitter political battles against each other. Nevertheless, the board still got things done.

“You have a ton of experience leaving,” said Hunter, who for four years was the city’s colorful and controversial mayor. “During the years that we were there, we got the Anaheim Arena built, got downtown redevelopment rolling and there are a lot of other good things happening like Disney development.”

For Hunter, 52, the end of his second four-year term appears to come as a relief.

“Who needs it?” he said in a recent interview. “There’s more to life.”

This is quite a reversal for a man who once talked about running for former Rep. William A. Dannemeyer’s congressional seat and at one time was the only Orange County official to have his own weekly television and radio programs.

But the charismatic Hunter has kept a relatively low profile since 1992 when he was ousted in a bitter election from the mayor’s seat by Daly.

“I think Fred lost heart after the election,” Pickler said.

Hunter, who became a lawyer in 1975 after working for 10 years as an Anaheim police officer, has most recently devoted his energy largely to his downtown Anaheim law practice.

“I want to become one of the best trial lawyers in Orange County,” he said during a brief interview last week, in which he also briefly discussed his years in office.

“I met a lot of good people like (California Angels owner) Gene Autry, (Rams President) John Shaw and (Walt Disney Co. Chairman) Michael Eisner,” he said. “And I liked working with the people in the city.”

Hunter counts as his greatest accomplishment on the council the building of the Anaheim Arena, a project he championed though it was considered a bold risk.

Although the facility is a big success, Hunter attributed his loss in the 1992 mayoral election to his ardent support of the arena, which at the time showed little promise of attracting professional sports.

It was a case of bad timing for Hunter; just a month after the election, the Walt Disney Co. announced it would bring a National Hockey League franchise to Orange County--a bittersweet moment for Hunter.

The former mayor said he is also proud of his efforts on behalf of city employees and points to the abolishment of a two-tier pay scale for firefighters as another key accomplishment.

“I was a street cop for 10 years and I was a street mayor,” he said. “I think I made working conditions better for the employees of the city.

Today though--after eight years in office including three campaigns for mayor--Hunter has a distaste for politics.

“Politics has turned dirty,” he said. “That’s the part that’s downright terrible. It’s just not worth it.”

Simpson, too, sounds eager to leave the political arena after four years on the council, three years as Anaheim’s city manager and six years as its fire chief.

Simpson, who is 64, decided against running for a second council term or challenging Daly in this year’s mayoral race, which Daly won handily over Curtis Stricker.

“Maybe it’s time for some new blood,” Simpson said. “The thought of running for office again was, quite frankly, revolting.”

Simpson, who worked for the Los Angeles Fire Department for 25 years before coming to Anaheim in 1980, will continue his part-time job as head of the Anaheim Area Hotel-Motel Assn.

“It’s enough to keep me out of mischief but beyond that, I have no immediate plans to be actively involved,” he said.

Simpson said that the highlight of his years on the council was the opportunity to vote on projects that he had a part in creating as city manager, a job he retired from in 1990.

“I had the rare privilege of being involved in the first negotiations for Westcot,” Simpson said. “At that time, it didn’t even have a name. We brought this thing along very gradually.”

The Walt Disney Co.’s ambitious expansion project would include 1,800 new hotel rooms, a shopping district and a second theme park called Westcot. The project is already two years behind its original schedule and Disney officials said this month that they are considering scaling back the proposal because it appears too costly.

“If (Westcot) comes to fruition, and I believe it will, it will rank as the single greatest accomplishment to come to Anaheim since Disneyland because it’s an economic engine that our city needs,” Simpson said.

Simpson said he saw himself as a “stabilizing” influence on a council that generally voted together but was sometimes plagued by infighting or entrenched differences on such issues as a utility tax, card clubs and privatization.

“I am extremely proud to have been a part of it all,” he said. “I’m proudest of the things relating to people and the friendships because those are the things that warm your heart.”

Alone among his colleagues, Pickler, 72, is leaving office reluctantly. If not for a term-limit law passed by voters in 1992, Pickler said he probably would have sought a fourth term.

“I’m young at heart and my mind is working,” he said during an interview in his office at City Hall, where empty cardboard boxes were stacked, soon to be filled with the proclamations, awards, photos and other memorabilia of his three council terms.

Pickler was surprisingly upbeat last week, despite having just lost the campaign for the 68th District Assembly seat.

“You win one, great. You lose one, great. You can’t dwell on it,” he said.

Pickler took heat from his colleagues for his opposition to the Anaheim Arena but said he is happy that the facility has been a success.

“I wanted to spend more money on police and fire and on fixing streets,” he said. “I was opposed to the dollars-and-cents aspect, but it was a good project and we can hold our heads high.”

Pickler said he would like to see the city attract a National Basketball Assn. team to the arena, which would boost the arena’s financial base.

The new council will also face the immediate prospect of the Rams leaving Anaheim, and must decide whether to renovate Anaheim Stadium as a football-only facility or build a new stadium for the California Angels, or both.

Finally, Pickler would like to see the new council restore some of the service programs cut in recent years. “When things get tight, we always take away from parks and recreation and libraries and things I think are important,” he said.

With his council term nearly over, Pickler, a retired printer, finds that all of a sudden he has time on his hands. He hopes to stay involved with some of the numerous county boards and commissions he has been appointed to.

“The best part has been getting involved,” he said. “It’s been a real education for Irv Pickler. I’ve learned so much and I’ve enjoyed it. I have no regrets.”