New Mayor to Run a Changed Anaheim

As Anaheim prepares to elect a new mayor Nov. 5, the one-time German farming colony turned postwar suburban boom town finds itself taking on the look and feel of what many residents moved there hoping to escape: a diverse, big city.

With the 2000 census counting 328,014 people, a 23% increase in a decade, Anaheim ranks just behind Cincinnati among the nation’s largest cities. Since 1990, its white population dropped by nearly a quarter and its Latino population nearly doubled. There are new, manicured subdivisions in its eastern hills and aging, lower-income neighborhoods on the western flats.

In between, there is Disney, the convention center, the hotels and Orange County’s two professional sports teams, tourist draws that bring more than 40 million visitors to the city each year.

Four candidates are vying to become mayor and manage the city’s development and redevelopment.

Two are City Hall insiders: council members Frank Feldhaus, 74, and Lucille Kring, 59. Two are outsiders: former Assembly Speaker Curt Pringle, 43, and former La Habra Police Chief Steve Staveley, 58.

“To me, the story is Curt Pringle,” said Fred Smoller, chairman of the political science department at Chapman University. “Can the city’s favorite son regain his mantle and win elected office in a community that has changed dramatically?”

Pringle’s family ran a drapery business in Anaheim for 25 years. He represented half the city during six of his eight years in the Assembly. In 1988, Pringle, aided by the local GOP, stationed private guards at polling places in Latino neighborhoods in Santa Ana because he feared Democrats were going to bus in illegal immigrants to vote. Some of the guards challenged voters and demanded identification.

Eventually, Pringle and the party settled a civil rights lawsuit for $400,000. To Pringle, the controversy is yesterday’s news; he recently reached out to Latino leaders in Anaheim in their fight with city officials to bring a Mexican-owned Gigante supermarket to town.

“Anaheim has great diversity, not just ethnically,” Pringle said. “You have varying needs across the city, and a lot of it boils down to improving the infrastructure. It’s not glamorous stuff, but it’s been ignored for many years. There are many major streets that have gone without public improvements for decades.”

But memories of the poll guards linger with Latino leaders, said Amin David, president of the Anaheim-based rights group Los Amigos of Orange County and a candidate for the Anaheim Union High School District Board of Education. David has endorsed Staveley, the only Democrat among the four candidates in the nonpartisan race.

David, like others, believes Anaheim has splintered into four cities under one government -- the old, the new, downtown and the resort.

After a decade that brought a massive revitalization of the resort district -- the city’s economic engine -- Anaheim is turning its sights on neighborhood projects and redevelopment downtown. This year the City Council approved a five-year, $583-million capital improvement fund for projects including community centers, parks and road and sewer upgrades, city spokesman John Nicoletti said.

“I want to take over for the next four years and complete some of the projects that we started on the council,” said Feldhaus, who moved to Anaheim in 1959 and owns a telephone messaging company. “I know the inner workings of the city. I’ve worked with two city managers, a lot of staff members and department heads. Those relationships will help in getting things done.”

Staveley has lived in Anaheim more than 30 years. He has seen the city flourish but believes Anaheim has lost its focus on the way to becoming one of the two largest urban centers in Orange County.

“We don’t have a vision for this city right now,” said Staveley, a consultant for a law firm. “Anaheim needs to become a destination residential community.” To accomplish that, he wants to convert his community policing background into community-oriented government. As mayor, he would keep regular office hours to allow residents to visit him and would consider neighborhood meetings to field local concerns.

“We need new ideas and we need the community input to help us get them,” he said.

Businesswoman Kring has been on the Anaheim City Council four years and is running for mayor because she believes Anaheim “should be America’s most dynamic city.”

“What’s wrong with Anaheim?” she said. “Have you been to our meetings? This city needs a mayor who’s a problem solver, leader and consensus builder.”

Kring fired the first political salvo in August when she sued to prohibit Feldhaus and Staveley from using mayor pro-tem and retired police chief, respectively, as their listed professions on the November ballot.

Though she won, she declined to discuss her lawsuit. “It’s old news. I don’t want to talk about it.”

She did express displeasure with the partisan battle that has materialized between Republican Pringle and Democrat Staveley, who has been endorsed by Mayor Tom Daly. Daly is leaving office after 10 years because of term limits.

“It’s too bad,” she said of the partisanship. “People want simple things. They want to know that their city is safe and that the trees are trimmed.”

Pringle raised $143,000 for his campaign through September. Feldhaus raised $106,000, Kring $105,000 and Staveley about $72,000.

Eleven candidates are seeking at-large seats on the council vacated by Feldhaus and Kring. They are: Richard Chavez, Stephen Eichler, Robert Flores, Robert Hernandez, John Koos, Robert McDonald, James Mills, Stefanie O’Neill, Manny Ontiveros, Harry Sidhu and Bob Zemel.