ANAHEIM : Ousted Budget Panel Member Reappointed

Several months after being bumped from the city’s Budget Advisory Commission, Shirley McCracken has been reappointed to the panel.

But McCracken, whose ouster appeared to be political retribution for her lawsuit against the city earlier this year over a vacant council seat, said Wednesday that she is not sure she will accept the appointment.

“It was unexpected, and I’m giving it serious consideration,” McCracken said. “Since my removal, I’ve given commitments to a number of organizations, and I have to weigh and measure my responsibilities and obligations.”

She was left out last May during a revamping process that reduced the number of commission members from 10 to seven.

When council members proposed the reduction, Mayor Tom Daly had said he anticipated that the current members interested in staying on the panel would be reappointed. McCracken was the only member who applied for reappointment and didn’t get it.

Former Mayor Ben Bay, one of the new appointees to the commission, stepped down recently, creating the vacancy.

McCracken was twice nominated to fill a council post that was left vacant by a quirk of the election process and received two votes on the five-member council, which she contended were enough to seat her because Councilman Bob Zemel abstained. A judge disagreed when McCracken filed a lawsuit against the city in January.

Zemel and Councilman Tom Tait abstained from voting on McCracken’s nomination this week. Zemel was critical of McCracken for suing the city, which he said cost almost $25,000 in legal fees, and for supporting a utility tax when she was chair of the commission. “To me, that does not make a good budget commissioner,” he said.

But Daly said, “I think she’s an exceptional person who is very fair-minded and reasonable. The circumstances of all of this are unusual, but the result is great.”