‘User-Friendly’ Mayor’s Term Draws to a Close

Kathryn McCullough knows how to work a room.

Her voice booms with confidence, her smile is infectious, and she seems born for public occasions. So why was there so much concern about her ability to lead Lake Forest, the small South County city she helped found a decade ago?

“All those things they were so worried about last year didn’t happen,” McCullough said. “City Hall is still standing; the meetings have continued on just as they always have.”

McCullough, who became Orange County’s first black mayor a year ago, has generally received good marks after her term began amid some racial tension.

Redevelopment along El Toro Road, the city’s traffic-clogged main corridor, has moved at a faster pace than in previous years. The city is in the process of selecting a site for a senior citizens center, largely through McCullough’s prodding. A ribbon of oak-shaded land along Serrano Creek was set aside as a preserve following a complex land swap.

McCullough has brought noticeable change to City Council meetings. She discourages colleagues and City Hall staffers from using government jargon and obscure acronyms. She asks colleagues to wrap up their comments within five minutes in an effort to keep meetings from bogging down. She makes a point of speaking in simple terms.

“She’s been a very user-friendly mayor,” City Councilwoman Marcia Rudolph said.

If she has a weakness, it’s in the detail work of civic administration.

“When it comes to real specific things, like economics in the city, she’s usually not the person I go to simply because it’s not her forte,” said Lili Russ, president of the local Chamber of Commerce. “Sometimes that’s the way it is with mayors.”

All in all, McCullough believes she has proved wrong those who said she wasn’t capable of being the city’s leader and spokeswoman.

But it hasn’t been an easy year. A charity she operates with her husband is again on the verge of being evicted from its offices. She is still hurt that some colleagues doubted her ability to be mayor, a ceremonial role. And she feels “pain” over charges of racism.

“All the dirty linen that was aired, all the press coverage--the people of Lake Forest didn’t deserve that,” McCullough said.

Her term as mayor ends tonight. Aside from Rudolph--a friend of 20 years--McCullough’s colleagues have refused to critique her tenure as mayor.

“Every year someone is chosen mayor,” said City Councilman Peter Herzog, who voted against McCullough’s selection. “I focus on what is important to the people of Lake Forest, and that doesn’t change.”

McCullough, an ordained minister who once did outreach work in women’s prisons, was elected to the City Council in 1994. Since then, she has been nominated for mayor five times, each time by Rudolph. Until last December, McCullough was rejected despite having served on a dozen committees and completed a League of California Cities course for aspiring mayors in 1997. City Council members who didn’t support her for mayor said she lacked experience and leadership.

Last year, McCullough’s supporters suggested it was racism, an allegation her critics have denied. And although she finally won the necessary support, her victory came in a divisive 3-2 vote, preceded by a stream of harsh words from her supporters.

Among them was Supervisor Todd Spitzer, who announced before the vote that McCullough was going to be his choice for the county’s Outstanding Woman of the Year. Support also came from Inglewood City Councilwoman Judy Dunlap, who said she was angered to see McCullough continually passed over.

A year later, Spitzer said he has even greater admiration for McCullough: “I think she’s had to work 10 times as hard as any other mayor on the council because of the adversity she faced going in.”

McCullough, an only child, was born in 1942. She grew up in a predominantly Jewish suburb of St. Louis. Her mother managed a dry-cleaning business and her father held a lead position in the steelworkers union. Her stepfather worked for the Pennsylvania Railroad.

It was in St. Louis that McCullough began a life marked by firsts: the first black student to attend her high school, the first in her family to become a born-again Christian and then an ordained minister, the first black elected official in Orange County, and its first black mayor.

She was married in 1960 and lived at the El Toro Marine base with her husband, who pulled duty in Vietnam. Together they raised five children, one of whom was killed in an accident on Ortega Highway.

Christopher McCullough, who has retired from the military and is now a clergyman, said his wife stayed at the hospital for five days, sitting by her son’s side until the end.

She turned to her faith and charity work to get through the pain. “If you can help one person before you leave God’s world, it makes every tragedy in your life worthwhile,” she said.

McCullough began feeding the hungry near her St. Louis home when she was 13. She recalls skipping outings to the movies or dances with friends so she could take cooking or cleaning jobs to raise money for the needy.

Her husband said he remembers getting a telephone call one day from his wife when they where living at the Marine base, where she baby-sat for other mothers. She had a grocery list, he said, and wanted him to stop by the commissary on his way home. “I said, ‘But we just bought a bunch of groceries.’ And she said, ‘Well, I’ve got some families here, one with seven kids, and they need food.’ ”

McCullough’s efforts to feed the hungry began as a living-room endeavor and grew into the Adopt-A-Neighbor food bank in 1980. The McCulloughs ran the food pantry from a Mission Viejo storage facility for 13 years until early this year, when they were unable to come up with the rent. For several weeks, Christopher McCullough handed out food from the back of a van.

But the community rallied behind them, and a donor agreed to pay a year’s rent at an empty storefront in a Lake Forest strip mall. The year is up this month, so again the McCulloughs are trying to scrape together enough money to keep the charity afloat and find a new location.

Despite her high profile, McCullough allows outsiders only the smallest glimpse into her personal life. She doesn’t like to talk about herself. But in public settings, chamber president Russ said she knows how to win a crowd.

At council meetings, before the elected officials settle down to government business, the mayor awards commendations to do-gooders. McCullough relishes the moment.

Usually dressed in a suit, her lapels glittering with city pins and her trademark golden “Jesus” brooch, she takes the honoree under her arm in motherly fashion, whispers a “Thank you,” and then gently points toward the city’s cameraman.

“Wait one moment,” she quietly instructs. “He’s going to take our picture.”