Council changes made official

Two new faces looked out from the City Council dais Tuesday night, and two familiar faces departed the chamber.

Robert Whalen and Steven Dicterow were the top vote-getters in the 2012 council election, in which incumbents Verna Rollinger and Jane Egly were unseated.

The election results were reported by retiring City Clerk Martha Anderson, and certified by Neal Kelley of the County Registrar of Voters.

Anderson’s final task after 13 years as a city employee, and eight as the clerk, was to install her deputy, Lisette Chel, as her successor.

Chel then administered the oath of office to reelected City Treasurer Laura Parisi and the new council members.

The new council’s first action was to elect Councilman Kelly Boyd mayor for this year. Councilwoman Elizabeth Pearson was elevated to mayor pro tem.

Boyd presented a proclamation to Egly, extolling her service to the city during her two terms on the council. A framed version was exhibited by City Manager John Pietig.

“I am not going to read it all; it’s two pages long,” Boyd said. “Jane was on the council for eight years and did a phenomenal job.”

Boyd also presented Egly with the ceremonial Mayor’s Gavel and the city tile given to all retirees.

“It was a pleasure being on the council,” Egly said. “Laguna is the best community there is and it because of all the people who live here.

“We [the council] sit up on the dais, but it is the staff that does all the work. I thank them all.”

Councilwoman Toni Iseman presented Rollinger’s proclamation.

“You’ve always had Laguna’s back,” Iseman said.

Iseman said a Laguna Beach park should be named for Rollinger since she was the one who identified a parcel of land under county jurisdiction as Laguna Beach property, which brought the city more than $250,000 when it was sold.

Rollinger also received a framed proclamation and the city tile.

Seated for the last time in her first term on the dais, Rollinger reeled off a long list of accomplishments for which she took credit, including advocating a better working relationship with the California Coastal Commission and influencing the commission to approve the Lifeguard Headquarters project on Main Beach.

Rollinger offered her services to the council — “unless I am traveling or otherwise engaged.”

Along with the selection of officials in November, Laguna voters were also asked to decide the fate of Measure CC, a parcel tax to raise money to buy pockets of open space as they became available.

Voters turned it down, 7,185 votes to 5,836.

A total of 14,119 ballots were cast, with only Parisi and Chel, both of whom ran unopposed, named on more than 50% of the ballots. The final tally for council votes were: Whalen with 5,686; Dicterow with 5,420; Egly with 4,467; Rollinger with 4,430; and Robert Ross with 791.

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