Laguna Beach City Council Changes Course : City Hall: Elected leaders have downsized advisory boards and signaled a rethinking of municipal priorities.

Since the liberal, environmentally minded City Council majority that guided the city for more than a decade was replaced in December by more conservative leaders, a number of residents have wondered how council priorities are likely to change.

At last week’s City Council meeting, they may have gotten a clue.

First, the council tackled a list of city commissions and committees that are made up of residents appointed under the previous council regime.

Council members unanimously agreed to: downgrade the Open Space Commission to a committee, which means each member will lose a $40 monthly stipend; merge the Housing and Human Affairs committees, which had a combined membership of 20, into a single seven-member group; and disband the Environmental Safety Committee.

Despite the city’s reputation as an art colony, the council also agreed to shrink the size of the Arts Commission next month from 10 to seven members. And Councilman Wayne J. Baglin warned: “It better perform and it better be different . . . otherwise it might not have a presence in the future.”

Some stunned commission and committee members watched the televised council session from home.

“Around our house there was a lot of phoning going back and forth because my husband is chairman of the Open Space Commission, now committee,” said Betsy Pendergast, chairwoman of the Heritage Committee, which was left intact. “People are nervous. I think what we feared would happen with this election is happening.”

In another move that some residents say signals shifting political winds, the council also unanimously rejected a request to preserve a Monterey cypress tree by placing it on the city’s Heritage Tree List. The tree’s owner objected to the preservation request, saying he plans to remove the tree when he builds on his property.

To some residents, the tree symbolizes the ongoing tug-of-war between environmentalists, who have for years helped shape city policy, and property rights advocates, who flexed their muscles in the last election.

“I think this tree is being sacrificed so they can prove themselves,” said Lee Cambria, who alerted the council to the plight of the tree. “I think (council members) feel a lot of groups are watching what they did in this instance. This was a signal. And . . . an unfortunate one.”

During a meeting with the Planning Commission on Saturday, the council indicated it would like to revise the city’s Heritage Tree ordinance to prevent trees from being placed on the list without their owners’ permission.

To residents who have been clamoring for change in Laguna Beach, however, the council’s actions last week were a welcome relief.

“I feel like there should be changes,” said Robert R. Mosier, president of the Laguna Beach Taxpayers Assn., adding that others he has talked to were also encouraged by the council’s actions.

Even some from opposing political camps said some changes are justified, that it is time to trim the bulging number of boards, commissions, committees and task forces the city has accumulated over the years.

City officials said committee attendance can be sporadic and some groups lack direction. For example, a memo to City Manager Kenneth C. Frank from Fire Chief William Edmundson, said the Environmental Safety Committee seems to “lack clear-cut goals and objectives.”

Planning Commissioner Norm Grossman said the council rightly changed some commissions and committees, but members should have been given better notice. Some residents, he said, were “flat astonished by what happened.”

“Because it came as a surprise to people, it’s going to give some people a bad taste about being on committees,” he said.

While the agenda for Tuesday’s meeting noted that the council would review committees and commissions, many members of the advisory bodies apparently were unaware that significant reorganization was likely.

Councilman Paul Freeman noted during the discussion that some commissioners may feel “blindsided.”

Until now, changes to commissions and committees were infrequent, city officials said.

“The last time I remember a committee being dissolved was more than a decade ago,” City Clerk Verna L. Rollinger said.

Grossman said Laguna Beach remains in transition but that it is too soon to detect what path city leaders will take.

“It’s way too early,” he said. “It’s always good to have a fresh look at things, but it’s much too early to see how things are going to shake out.”