Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : Residents Seek to Recall 3 Lancaster Council Members : Government: Group starts process to oust officials who awarded lucrative contract extension to city manager.

Residents angry about a lucrative contract extension given last month to the city manager have handed recall notices to three City Council members.

Members of a group called Concerned Citizens of Lancaster gave the intent-to-recall papers at Monday’s council meeting to Mayor Frank Roberts and Councilmen Henry Hearns and George Runner, charging that the three ignored a community outcry over City Manager Jim Gilley’s new contract.

“You three gentlemen show the utmost contempt for the citizens of Lancaster,” said Harriet R. Whitton, spokeswoman for the recall campaign. “We have no choice. We can’t get your attention in any other way.”

The recall notices also accused the three councilmen, who voted for the contract, of failing to hold a public hearing on redevelopment practices, harming small businesses by granting unnecessary concessions to commercial developers, buying property above the appraised value and “general dereliction of duty.”

If 20 signatures on the intent-to-recall notices are verified by the city clerk, the recall activists will have 120 days to collect about 9,400 signatures from registered Lancaster voters on petitions for each of the targeted council members. If those signatures are verified, a recall election will be held.

The recall papers were handed out near the beginning of a meeting that drew a standing-room-only audience, including many people wearing gold ribbons to show their support for the councilmen targeted for recall.

Some of the recall foes, who have formed their own group called Lancaster Citizens for Good Government, argued that the effort to oust Roberts, Runner and Hearns was unwarranted and harmful to the city’s efforts to attract new employers.

“Any recall hurts everyone,” said Michael Pope, a member of the anti-recall group. “It’s going to cost money, and it’s going to tear at the fiber of our community.”

After residents from both sides had their say, the council members unleashed harsh verbal attacks against the recall proponents and contended that the two council members not targeted for recall--Michael Singer and Deborah Shelton--had instigated the campaign.

Roberts charged that the recall was “driven and started by two of my close colleagues.”

Singer and Shelton acknowledged that they had contacted community leaders and news reporters after a proposal to revise the city manager’s contract was added at the last minute to the Nov. 7 City Council agenda.

On Monday night, Singer and Shelton said they do not support efforts to recall the other council members. But Singer said residents deserved to know about the last-minute changes proposed in the city manager’s contract. “I do not apologize for talking to the citizens who elected me,” he said.

Under that plan, Gilley, whose $127,000-a-year contract was to run through August, 1997, was to receive automatic one-year contract extensions each August and up to 30 months of extra pay as a consultant if he were fired by a 3-2 vote of the council.

At the Nov. 7 meeting, angry residents complained that the contract was too generous and asked that a vote be delayed for two weeks so that the provisions could be reviewed in greater detail and compared to other city managers’ contracts.

Roberts, Runner and Hearns opposed such a delay, voting to drop the automatic annual contract extensions and consulting bonus, but approved the remaining provisions, including a one-year extension and annual pay raises linked to the cost-of-living index. Shelton and Singer voted against the contract.

On Monday, Shelton and Singer urged that the city hire an independent mediator to help restore harmony among the council members.

But Roberts said the battle lines appear to have been drawn. “It’s time to proceed with the recall,” the mayor said.

Runner appeared confident that the recall effort would not succeed. Referring to the 25 signatures on the initial recall papers, he said: “You can get 25 people’s names on a paper saying the Earth’s flat.”

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