LAGUNA BEACH : Tearful Goodbys, Jubilant Welcomes Shape Council Meeting

In an intensely emotional ceremony, three City Council members relinquished their jobs Tuesday night after being lauded for their accomplishments--from keeping a housing tract out of Laguna Canyon to creating a park just for dogs.

Despite their final controversial year in office--a year clouded by a ferocious firestorm 14 months ago--Robert F. Gentry, Lida Lenney and Ann Christoph were given a send-off that brought some on the council and in the audience to tears.

Gentry, who was first elected in 1982, captivated the audience as he recalled the experience of being Orange County’s only openly gay elected official during a period when AIDS was gaining a stranglehold on the nation and on Laguna Beach.

Six years earlier, Gentry announced from the same platform that his longtime companion Gary Burdick had died of the disease.

“The label of controversy has been with me wherever I’ve been,” Gentry said, “and it’s primarily been because I’m openly gay.”

Lenney, who founded the Laguna Canyon Conservancy in the late 1980s to stop a housing project from being built in the canyon, was praised by residents for her vigilance in protecting the environment.

“Thank you for giving us the courage to dream, the strength to endure and the conviction to act,” said Carolyn Wood, the conservancy’s president.

Neither Lenney nor Gentry ran for reelection. Christoph failed in her bid to maintain her seat after serving one term.

The mood shifted dramatically once the trio stepped down and new council members Wayne J. Baglin, Steve Dicterow and Paul Freeman were sworn into office. There was an explosion of applause, the release of balloons and a spontaneous “Happy Birthday” serenade to Dicterow, who turned 40 on Tuesday.

The new council’s first action was to vote Kathleen Blackburn, now the lone female in the group, into the mayor’s seat.