He’s Hitting the Ground Running : Politics: Incoming councilman Tom Tait will face many key issues right away. Colleagues describe the appointee as thoughtful and conscientious.

Tom Tait won’t officially become a member of the City Council until Tuesday, but the 36-year-old engineering company president is quickly discovering the high stakes that come with the job.

In the past three weeks alone, the Los Angeles Rams football team has announced its intention to quit city-owned Anaheim Stadium for St. Louis, and the Walt Disney Co. has disclosed that it will dramatically scale back a $3-billion expansion to Disneyland.

“It’s similar to being on a small board of directors of a major corporation,” said Tait, who has already received briefings from city staff members on these and other city issues.

Tait has enjoyed a relatively low profile as a city planning commissioner for the past two years. He was thrust into the political spotlight last month when he unexpectedly emerged as the council’s unanimous choice to fill a vacant seat on the board.

Tait “is coming onto the council at a very crucial time,” Mayor Tom Daly said. “But, I believe he is prepared to tackle tough issues and understand the complexities of the things Anaheim is facing. He is a very quiet and thoughtful person who thinks things through before he says them.”

The council, which for nearly two months had deadlocked on filling the vacancy, was only days away from being forced by city law into calling an expensive and potentially divisive special election when it agreed on Tait.

The appointment of this soft-spoken father of four, who coaches his children’s soccer and T-ball teams, surprised many people, including Tait.

“I’m not that well-known and I’ve never been political,” he said. “But, I felt I was qualified. I feel very strongly about the idea of community responsibility.”

Members of the council had previously nominated several people from among the pool of 16 unsuccessful candidates in last November’s election. None could garner the necessary three votes.

Sharon Ericson, who came in fourth in the election, is critical of the council for choosing Tait, who never sought the seat through the electoral process.

“We put out all of the money and the time to run for public office,” Ericson said of the field of electoral candidates. “We informed the citizens of Anaheim of what we were all about. Then, the council just goes and pulls a name out of a hat.”

But Ericson is not critical of Tait personally and said he does not appear to be politically aligned with anyone currently on the council.

Phyllis Boydstun, chairwoman of the Planning Commission, agrees.

“Tom is very conscientious, asks lots of questions and makes up his own mind,” said Boydstun, who also ran for election to the council last fall. “In working with him, I’ve found that he’s not influenced by anyone.”

Boydstun said she has also seen a personal side to Tait. When a close relative of Boydstun’s, who is battling cancer, needed blood, Tait showed up at the hospital as a donor.

“I didn’t even have to ask him,” she said. “But there he was at Hoag Hospital the morning after I mentioned it. He’s a very caring person.”

The soon-to-be councilman said the city’s tourism industry is important to him, and he would like to focus on hiring more police officers and reviving troubled neighborhoods. Tait also wants to explore privatization issues “where they make sense.”

Tait is a fiscal conservative whose stint on the city’s budget advisory board, as well as his having a master’s in business from Vanderbilt University, together played a key role in his being chosen, council members said.

“He was just the ideal choice,” said Councilman Bob Zemel, who nominated Tait. “It was really exciting to see this council work as a team to find someone like Tom.”