City Council Gadflies Make the People’s Business Theirs

They show up all the time and speak on just about anything, from raising library fees to accusing a politician of corruption. Some are polite. Others growl. Some wear outlandish clothes; many say outlandish things.

They sometimes call themselves “civic watchdogs” or “community activists,” citizen guardians who are constant fixtures at public meetings to make sure the people’s business is being conducted efficiently, honestly and frugally.

But to others, they are gadflies--people who pester, annoy or irritate.

“I wear the gadfly badge with honor,” said Ray Littrel, a 30-year Garden Grove resident. “Unless you are a pest and in the faces of the council members, you’re not effective.”

Anyone going to an Orange City Council meeting will see one of the most persistent gadflies in action. Carole Walters arrives at meetings armed with a stack of documents, e-mail messages and color-coordinated folders. Sitting in the front row, she flips furiously through her papers preparing to speak on almost every item on the agenda.

“We want answers,” she said at last week’s meeting as issues involving the proposed El Toro airport arose. “We want to be able to see things. Who’s going to clean it all up? I’ve got a lot of questions not answered.”

Many council members avoided eye contact, looking down at their papers. After hearing several speakers, Councilman Dan Slater looked up and quipped: “I appreciate all your comments--yours too, Carole.”

These days, public bodies are growing increasingly weary of the gadflies and their propensity to talk and talk. In many cities, it’s not uncommon for evening city council meetings to drag into the wee hours of the morning, prolonged in part by the gadflies.

Some of the concern also stems from the fact that some gadflies can be downright disruptive or intimidating. A San Bernardino man was arrested last month after his tirade against the mayor.

Officials know that any member of the public is entitled under California law to speak at almost any public meeting, but they still are exploring ways to move along the meetings by severely altering or limiting the public’s speaking time.

In Garden Grove, for example, members of the City Council voted earlier this month to consolidate five public-comment periods during its meetings into a single, shorter one.

Six Orange County cities--Cypress, Dana Point, Irvine, Laguna Hills, Lake Forest and Mission Viejo--now limit public comment to a total of 15 or 30 minutes. Anaheim and Laguna Hills also limit total public comment to 10 minutes per topic. Most cities, like Orange, allow every speaker to talk for three minutes per topic, regardless of the number of speakers.

Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, as chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, earlier this year took the unusual step of banning two organizers for the Bus Riders Union from speaking at MTA board meetings for three to six months.

Gadflies Gain Clout

With increased exposure from cable television broadcasts of council meetings, many activists are gaining clout, council members said, and some prove to be effective at initiating changes.

“They’re developing their own following,” said Michael Alvarez, a councilman in Orange. “From a council member’s perspective, you have to deal with them because if they have a following, that’s a lot of voters. You have to respect them.”

Liz Cason, a longtime Anaheim resident, views the city as her extended family. She said she tries to watch its development with a loving eye but speaks when she thinks the city has done something wrong.

“It’s something like kids,” said Cason, 69, who has been attending Anaheim City Council meetings for 27 years. “I want what is best for the city.”

Decked out in her straw hat and bright jewelry, Cason isn’t the type who trots around council chambers with a bulging pack of papers. But she does command respect when she speaks on her pet issues.

One item she lobbied for is the revitalization of the Jeffrey-Lynne neighborhood. Cason repeatedly urged the council to provide more funding for the neighborhood. Last month, the council approved a $55-million project to help buy out landlords and rebuild the neighborhood.

For Littrel, saving Garden Grove taxpayers as little as 50 cents a day is just as important.

“That may not seem like a lot of money,” said Littrel, 64, “but if you keep them in line in every aspect, then it doesn’t get out of hand.”

His most recent victory was when he helped persuade the city to lower its increase of monthly sewage and trash fees by $3.87. To do so, he mobilized 2,600 households to protest the fee increase.

“Why do I do it? It’s a matter of philosophy, sometimes principle, and sometimes plain old dumbness,” he said.

Garden Grove Councilman William Dalton said Littrel “does his homework.” And Councilman Mark Rosen said the gadfly “keeps you on the edge of your seat.”

In the city of Orange, Walters “is as well-known as the council members,” Alvarez said. Slater added, “I’m sure some people are more articulate, but she gets her point across.”

Though Walters is trying to block what Slater believes are much-needed zoning changes in Old Towne Orange, “her heart is in the right place,” he said.

Walters, often controversial, drew attention to the need for fire hydrants at a mobile home park several years ago, and they were installed. Recently, she said, she has been working to get a park built at a site where the city had promised more than 20 years ago to build one.

“I’m just making sure they do what they say they will,” she said.

Stepping Over the Line

Some gadflies can get out of hand.

Officials in San Bernardino are considering tough measures about the public’s right to speak after the mayor there obtained a restraining order against a man who cornered her after a meeting.

Last month, Jeff Wright “was six inches from [Mayor Judith Valles’] face, cursing at her, and witnesses thought he was going to hit her,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Beth Wells Houser said.

Wright, 42, described by authorities as a transient, was arrested and faces a court date next month over the incident. He has been in trouble in the past for disrupting meetings of the San Bernardino City Council, the city Planning Commission and the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors.

Some cities have moved the public comment portion of their council meetings to the end of the agenda, hoping the gadflies would get tired and leave without speaking.

That didn’t work, however, in Long Beach.

The council’s recent decision to put the public speaking segment at the end of its late-afternoon council meetings was met with loud protests. One outraged citizen, environmentalist Diana Mann, was arrested for refusing to leave the speaker’s podium. A week after the council tentatively approved the move, it faced two hours of condemnation from critics.

The councilman who proposed the move decided to table the item, deciding that the 30 minutes that might be saved during the meetings wasn’t worth it.

In San Bernardino, Marjorie Mikels is a unique critic of the county Board of Supervisors. The Upland civil rights lawyer is the estranged wife of Supervisor Jon Mikels and is a regular board attendee and critic.

Last October, she was removed by sheriff’s deputies from the supervisors’ meeting for belting out a song, accompanied by her accordion. Her lyrics did not address items on the agenda, county officials said. She was cited for disrupting a public meeting and for hindering an officer.

She said the song was a serious statement about the dangers of a proposed nuclear dump to children.

A Gadfly Goes Big Time

There’s one thing the gadflies and their prey, the public officials who must listen to them, agree on: Gadflies are a unique bunch.

After all, Howard Jarvis was dismissed for nearly two decades as a bombastic anti-tax gadfly before he and Paul Gann wrote Proposition 13.

Jarvis regularly appeared before Los Angeles County supervisors in the 1960s and ‘70s to threaten retribution against elected officials who he felt unfairly burdened taxpayers.

Most lawmakers thought his diatribes were meaningless.

But after the proposition’s landslide victory in 1978, the retired businessman became a national celebrity. Politicians fell over themselves to jump on his anti-tax bandwagon. Jarvis even appeared on the cover of Time magazine.

Times staff writers Neda Raouf, Kristina Sauerwein, Douglas P. Shuit, Monty Morin and Richard Winton contributed to this report.