Measure’s Outside Donors Are Resented

Nearly 25% of the money supporting a ballot measure to change how Huntington Beach council members are elected has come from donors outside the city, and opponents of Measure E say they are wondering why.

The measure, on Tuesday’s ballot, would change the council from seven members chosen at large to five members selected by district. Supporters of the measure have raised $143,000 to the opponents’ $29,000, according to campaign disclosure forms.

At least $32,000 of pro-Measure E money has come from businesses and individuals in other cities. Many are connected to the measure’s sponsor, attorney Scott Baugh, a former Republican assemblyman who lives in Huntington Beach.

Among the donations are $10,000 from William Pearce of Tustin, a client of Baugh’s and a consultant on self-storage facilities; $5,000 from Robert Eichenberg of Newport Beach, a semiretired businessman; $2,500 from Josh Bradbury of Newport Beach, a close friend of Baugh’s and owner of an apparel manufacturing company; and $10,000 from Fieldstead and Co. in Irvine, owned by multimillionaire Howard Ahmanson Jr., a longtime contributor to conservative causes.

Baugh said there was nothing sinister behind the contributions.

“I have friends all over Orange County, and I asked my friends to support this project because they believe it’s a good-government project,” Baugh said. The largest donations to the pro-Measure E campaign have come from the Huntington Beach Police Officers Assn. and AES Corp. of Arlington, Va., which operates a power plant in the city. The officers association donated $30,000, and its leaders say the current council makeup has not made public safety a priority.

AES contributed $22,000. The company has clashed with the council, most notably over the city’s attempt to raise its property taxes. Eichenberg said he supported the measure based on the recommendations of two friends, Baugh and Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach).

Opponents, however, say they are unsettled by the amount of outside money.

“What is their interest in seeing the way we govern ourselves changed? This doesn’t make sense,” said Shirley Dettloff, a former councilwoman and spokeswoman for a coalition opposing the measure.

Ed Kerins, president of the activist group Huntington Beach Tomorrow, said Baugh and his supporters are trying to gain control of the council.

“They’re sick and tired of having liberals on the City Council,” Kerins said. “This is their way of getting true conservatives back on the City Council, by revising our city form of government.”

Baugh gathered enough signatures to qualify the measure for the November 2002 ballot, but the council delayed the vote until Tuesday, in part to give initiative opponents time to mount an effective campaign.

The city had also sought to remove the initiative from Tuesday’s ballot, arguing that it violated a single-subject rule, was an unconstitutional revision of the city charter and contained false and misleading statements.

A Superior Court judge disagreed, and the measure was cleared for Tuesday’s ballot.

Baugh said he launched the initiative because he saw the at-large system favoring environmental and coastal issues at the expense of the city’s aging sewer system and disrepair of streets and sidewalks.

“You have a council that is constantly dominated by environmental extremists and special interests, as opposed to being held accountable to the people,” Baugh said.

Further, the cost of a citywide campaign eliminates many potential candidates, he said.

“If you don’t have a lot of money ... you’re not going to win a council race,” Baugh said.

Dettloff argued that if the measure passed, voters would be substituting seven representatives for one.

“I want the vision made by the council to reflect what is good for all of Huntington Beach, not just one section, or what helps the council member in that area be reelected,” Dettloff said. She warned that districts were not the solution to the infrastructure problems besetting the city.

“Districts will not produce miracles,” Dettloff said. “Reality says you get things done according to the budget that the city has to work with.”