Seal Beach Mayor to Resign Following Threat

Mayor Gwen Forsythe has submitted a letter of resignation from the City Council, apparently because she received a threatening message written on a rifle cartridge, officials said Friday.

Forsythe, 42, faxed a resignation letter to City Hall on Wednesday, six days after City Clerk Joanne Yeo opened the suspicious-looking package addressed to the mayor.

Forsythe did not specify why she is resigning, but officials speculate it is because of the threatening mail.

Mayor Pro Tem Marilyn Bruce Hastings said she has not spoken to the mayor, who is also a member of the council, and cautioned that the resignation is not “final in any shape or form.”

If Forsythe follows through with the request, it will go before the City Council on March 24 and become official, City Atty. Quinn Barrow said.

“To intimidate her into resigning is flat-out wrong,” Councilwoman Patty Campbell said. “I hope she will reconsider. She is very valuable to her constituents and to the people of this city.”

Forsythe could not be reached for comment.

Forsythe wasn’t aware of the threatening letter until Tuesday, sources close to the mayor said.

Yeo “found a bullet inside with the message written on it, and she called us,” Lt. Ken Mollohan said. “The mayor never actually saw it.”

FBI and state Justice Department agents are assisting local police with the probe.

“We think it’s a result of development in our city,” said Mollohan, who declined to elaborate on the threatening note, citing a need for confidentiality.

Two other prominent officials in the area have received threats over property development in recent years.

A similar package--with a message scrawled on a bullet--was sent to Lee Whittenberg, the city’s director of development services, in December, Mollohan said.

In 1994, archeologist Nancy Whitney-Desautels, who had been working on the Bolsa Chica wetlands restoration, received a 3-inch bullet in the mail bearing her name and the slogan “Remember Our Ancestors.”

Although not involved in the development controversy in Seal Beach, Jim Velasquez, chieftain of the coastal Gabrielenos-Dieguenos, demanded a more intensive investigation Friday.

“When a threat forces a mayor to resign, what can we expect to happen next?” he said, noting that previous threats have gone unresolved. “This should be taken very seriously . . . I demand that someone get to the bottom of this.”

A proposal to develop Hellman Ranch, nearly 200 acres along Seal Beach Boulevard, has been shrouded in controversy because it is believed to be an ancient Native American burial ground. Two tribes are feuding over who can lay claim to the land.

Forsythe has been criticized by a group of Native Americans for her support of the development, which is in her council district.

The current proposal, which Forsythe helped negotiate, is to develop about 70 homes and a golf course and restore some 20 acres of saltwater wetlands. It would also establish 10 acres of freshwater wetlands along Seal Beach Boulevard.

A three-time mayor, Forsythe took office in 1990 as part of a slow-growth majority that reversed the previous council’s approval of Mola Development Corp.’s plans for a 329-home Hellman Ranch development.

She became the center of controversy in November after the City Council--acting on her recommendation--fired an archeologist who identified several sites on the Hellman property believed to have been inhabited by Native Americans.

Last week, Forsythe shut down a council-appointed committee that makes recommendations on the development of land that could be Native American in origin.

Forsythe, a 15-year resident of Seal Beach, owns and operates a sign company with her husband, Riley.

If Forsythe’s resignation is accepted, the City Council’s remaining members would have 30 days to select someone to finish her term, which expires next March. If council members cannot agree on a replacement, they would have to call a special election, Barrow said.

Times staff writer Thao Hua contributed to this report.