Campbell Survives Seal Beach Recall; Yost, Doane Win

A bitter five-month campaign to remove Councilwoman Patricia Campbell from office fizzled at the polls Tuesday.

By a final vote of almost 2 to 1, voters in Campbell’s College Park East neighborhood preferred to keep her on the council for the remaining two years of her term.

Meanwhile, voters in three other Seal Beach districts went to the polls to choose their own council members.

In District 1 (Old Town and Surfside), a runoff election will have to be held May 12, because one candidate received only 11 votes more than another, and failed to get a majority.

Voters were choosing a replacement for Mayor Marilyn Bruce Hastings in a three-way race with businessman Shawn Boyd, psychologist Matthew Duggan and county planner Charles Antos. Duggan received slightly more votes than Boyd, sending them to a runoff.

In District 3 (Marina Hill and parts of Old Town) anesthesiologist Paul Yost won in his fight against businessman Stan Anderson in a race to replace Councilwoman Gwen Forsythe.

In District 5 (Leisure World), former Councilman William Doane defeated incumbent Harry Fulton

by a mere 18 votes, a necessary majority to avoid a runoff. Doane resigned in 1996 because he believed he couldn’t work with the newly-elected council.

Since Seal Beach elects its City Council representatives by district, candidates were competing for roughly 3,500 votes in each district.

Campbell’s term expires in March 2000, but controversy over development on the Bixby Ranch Co.’s land turned into a movement against her. Recall supporters say that in her two years in office, Campbell never asked how they felt about that issue.

Campbell said at least some of the 1,300 voters who signed the recall petitions were misled about what they were signing. A district attorney’s investigation found “insufficient evidence” of the charges.

The recall centered on Bixby Ranch plans to develop a 40-acre parcel across from the Rossmoor Shopping Center on Seal Beach Boulevard. Campbell, an environmentalist, set off her opponents by signing a memorandum of understanding with Bixby Ranch that allowed the developer to explore an all-commercial plan on the site in return for an assurance that the city would recover some of its costs to review the project.

Some residents took this as an outright violation of the slow-growth platform Campbell ran on in 1996.

But Campbell said at the time that the memorandum didn’t obligate the city to anything.

“I signed the [memorandum]. So what?” she said. “It was a reimbursement document to the city; that’s why I signed it.”

Campbell spent $2,120 fighting the recall, campaign finance records show. Arden W. Yeam spent $1,000 in his bid to take her council seat.

The City Council will certify the election results at a special meeting next week.

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Election Returns / Seal Beach City Council

District 1

100% Precincts Reporting

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Votes % Matthew Duggan 433 44.6 Shawn Boyd 422 43.5 Charles Antos 116 11.9

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District 3

100% Precincts Reporting

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Votes % Paul Yost 850 60.6 Stan Anderson 552 39.4

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District 5

100% Precincts Reporting

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Votes % William Doane 549 50.8 Harry Fulton 531 49.2

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District 4

Recall of Councilwoman

Patty Campbell

100% Precincts Reporting

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Votes % Yes 717 37.5 No 1,193 62.5

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Partial Term (if Campbell recalled)

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Arden Yeam 700 100

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* Elected candidates are in bold type.

Results are not official and could be affected by absentee ballots.

* Runoff May 12 for District 1