Council Harmony Could Hinge on Santa Ana Race

Santa Ana voters, who elected four City Council members just last fall, go to the polls again this week in a special election that could prove crucial to the council’s new-found spirit of harmony and consensus.

Five candidates are running for the vacant Ward 6 seat, including two men who were unsuccessful in the November election: former Councilman Wilson B. Hart, who lost his bid for reelection, and swap meet operator Rick Norton, who was unable to defeat longtime Councilman Daniel E. Griset.

Also running are Lisa Mills, planning manager for the Orange County Transportation Commission and chairman of the city’s Redevelopment Commission; Lyle Overby, a county lobbyist, and William C. Camp, a real estate investment manager.

Negative Mailers

The race has been much quieter than the rancorous November races, during which residents were besieged by highly negative political mailers.

“It’s boring as can be,” said Mayor Daniel H. Young. “Everyone figured out coming off the last race that this negative stuff wouldn’t work.”

But in the final weeks of the campaign, a few issues have emerged, and the candidates have stepped up their attacks on one another. Overby has labeled Hart, Mills and Norton “carpetbaggers” for moving into the district just in time to run, while some of Overby’s opponents say his career as an influence broker at the county level weakens his credibility and may raise conflict-of-interest questions down the road.

Hart and Norton just don’t like each other. Hart describes Norton as a “vagabond . . . with no interest in government,” while Norton calls Hart “the smear-mail king of Santa Ana.”

The special election became necessary when Young, the previous Ward 6 representative, was elected mayor in November and had to vacate his old council seat. That left the council with just six members--and, based on past voting patterns, an apparent 3-to-3 deadlock on many key issues, with Young, Griset and Patricia A. McGuigan on one side and council members John Acosta, Ron May and Miguel A. Pulido on the other.

But those lines have blurred since the election. Longtime opponents Young and Acosta have agreed to work together, and the rest of the council has followed their lead. At the council’s first meeting following the November election, the members unanimously made Acosta mayor pro tem, a post he had coveted but had long been denied.

Given the relative harmony these days, the race for Ward 6 might not have the same decisive impact on the council it would have a year ago, said Young.

“It really isn’t crucial,” he said. “Whoever wins this seat is not going to become the fourth vote for anybody. . . . If your argument is the most persuasive, that’s the way things would go.”

Acosta, however, sees the race differently, demonstrating that he and Young still do not see everything eye-to-eye, even if they are endorsing the same candidate, Overby.

“Very crucial,” is how Acosta described the significance of the race. “I would predict the harmony will continue, but I’m a little bit skeptical. . . . Young doesn’t want Norton on the council, and I don’t want Hart on the council. We’ve made no bones about it. This is why we’ve gone with Lyle Overby.”

The election of either Hart or Norton, the two best-known candidates, would open old wounds. Norton and Griset--a Young ally--waged an openly hostile campaign against one another last fall, and Hart helped finance a political mailer against Acosta that tied him to a topless dance contest written up in Oui Magazine in 1982.

Neither Camp, Mills nor Overby has ever run for office before or been actively involved in a local campaign, so the potential impact of a victory by one of them is harder to assess.

While the council has been united since the election, the six members have split in their endorsements for the Ward 6 seat. Acosta and Young have each forsaken old friends--Norton and Hart, respectively--and together endorsed Overby. McGuigan and Griset are endorsing their old ally Hart, while Pulido and May are backing Norton.

Camp and Mills have had to wage their campaigns without the benefit of council endorsements or the heavy financial backing that their opponents enjoy.

Camp has tried to turn that fact into an advantage.

“My best asset is me, going to meetings and talking to people,” said Camp, a UC Irvine graduate who studied political sci ence and who, at 27, is the youngest of the five contenders. “I thought I was somewhat of an alternative candidate. I don’t owe any favors to anybody. . . . I’m a breath of fresh air.”

Camp was the first candidate to enter the race, announcing his intention almost as soon as Young vacated the seat. He said crime remains the biggest problem facing the city, and he would support some kind of special zoning for mobile home parks to protect the interests of mobile home residents.

“The problem in Santa Ana right now is that people don’t have a good feeling about the city,” he said. “In this election, a new guy can come out and get the ball rolling.”

Cites Service

Mills, 32, cites her service on the city’s Redevelopment Commission the past 2 1/2 years--she was elected chairwoman last August--and her expertise as a transportation planning manager when listing her qualifications to be a council member.

“If you asked all the council members who is the best qualified, I’d bet it would be me,” Mills said. She added that while their own political reasons kept Young and Pulido from endorsing her, both council members have demonstrated their respect for her by appointing her to city task forces or commissions.

“What I found from my involvement in the city is that people are looking for someone who would be accessible to them,” said Mills, explaining her decision to enter the race the last day of the filing period. “When I looked at the slate of candidates, I didn’t see anyone.”

Mills said she too would support protective zoning for mobile home park residents and would like to see the city work more closely with area school districts to improve Santa Ana schools’ poor public image.

Mills, along with Hart and Norton, have been labeled “carpetbaggers” by Overby for moving into the ward just before the election. Overby has tried to capitalize on the issue in his campaign, sending out petitions to voters asking them to support a new ordinance that would require candidates to live in council wards for at least a year before running.

Criticism Rejected

All three candidates reject the criticism, pointing out that council members are elected by, and represent, the city at large, even if they are required to live in the ward from which they are running.

Also, say Mills and Hart, Overby’s call for a 1-year residency requirement is disingenuous, because the city attorney has already said that such an ordinance would be unconstitutional.

“That’s the only issue he’s got,” Mills said.

Overby, 47, maintains that if such an ordinance would, in fact, be unconstitutional, some other means must be found to stop or at least discourage candidates from jumping around from ward to ward in search of a winnable seat.

“I’m going to work on that,” he said. “If all you have to do is jump around, the people who are going to do that are those who can afford to jump around and maintain two residences. That’s what’s wrong with carpetbagging.”

If the practice continues, Overby says, the city’s voters will likely turn to true ward elections--a prospect he does not look forward to.

“I think the people would demand that,” he said. “I would rather not see that.”

Represented Companies

Overby, an aide to then-Supervisor Ralph A. Diedrich in the 1970s, has a consulting business and has represented such companies as the Santa Margarita Co., Leason Pomeroy Associates and the Hon Development Co.

Some of Overby’s opponents wonder whether his professional responsibilities would prevent him from fully representing the interests of Santa Ana. Norton pointed to Overby’s $198 donation last year to Yorba Linda council candidate Rick Violett, who headed an initiative campaign that would locate all future county jails in Santa Ana--and donations of equal amount to two like-minded council members in Yorba Linda--as an example of the potential conflicts.

“I think anybody that supports anybody that supports putting a centralized jail in Santa Ana ought to have his head examined,” Norton said.

Overby says the contributions had nothing to do with his business, which he says has never had clients involved in Yorba Linda projects. The donations, Overby said, were made at the request of “a good Republican friend” who lives in Yorba Linda.

“At the time I made that donation, I had no idea who Rick Violett is,” Overby said. “If someone would ask me to deliver the jail to here, I wouldn’t do it. . . . We are not supporting that idea. I was helping a good Republican candidate.”

Conflict Charge Disputed

Norton’s charge that Overby’s job will conflict with his duties is groundless, Overby said.

“I am very sensitive to the idea of conflict,” he said. “To avoid any whisper, since I initially conceived the idea of running, I have not entertained any clients that would even come close to the city. The issue of conflict is a trumped-up charge.”

Overby says that his experience and extensive knowledge of government, along with the fact that he is endorsed by strange bedfellows Young and Acosta, will be a valuable asset to the council.

“The person who fills that seat . . . will be thrown in the middle of a sophisticated political hotbed,” he said, adding that, in his case, “there wouldn’t be a very long learning curve.”

Hart, a 43-year-old attorney, is trying to regain a seat on the council after losing a hard-fought battle to Acosta in November--a two-incumbent race made necessary by ward redistricting.

“It was not a pleasant experience at all,” Hart said. “I don’t like to lose a tennis match . . . and I certainly miss the involvement. I’d like to have it back.”

At the Last Minute

Hart said he decided to enter the race at the last minute because he was concerned that Norton might win.

“I did not think that Lyle Overby, in view of his professional status, would win,” Hart said. “I think (Rick Norton) would be disastrous for Santa Ana. . . . He feels as though the city done him wrong, and he wants to get even.”

Norton’s family company operated a weekend swap meet for several years at Santa Ana Stadium until the City Council, citing neighborhood concerns, shut it down. He now operates a swap meet at Rancho Santiago College, outside the city’s jurisdiction.

Hart said that in his first few months in office, he would propose an ordinance establishing a $25,000 spending limit and $250 contribution limits on Santa Ana council campaigns. He said he would also like to see some kind of “fair campaigning commission” in the city to review campaign materials on a voluntary basis and issue a seal of approval, showing that it meets certain standards.

“This is something that will rely on political and moral pressure,” said Hart, who spent more than $90,000 in his last campaign and was widely criticized for the Oui magazine hit piece on Acosta.

Safety Commission

He would also call for the establishment of a public safety commission to oversee the police and fire departments, he said.

Hart said he would have “enjoyed” the support of his old friend Young--who says that he was already committed to Overby by the time Hart entered the race. “In the interests of Santa Ana . . . we will continue to do business . . . if we have the opportunity again,” he said.

Norton, 38, says he entered the Ward 6 race in part to clear his name. “With all the lies and the smear campaigns they came at me with the last time, I guess I just had to prove they weren’t true,” he said. “The only way you can do that is meet the people and answer the questions. . . . And I think I can do a really good job for the city of Santa Ana.”

Norton lost a close race in November to council stalwart Griset, who barraged residents with mailer after mailer attacking Norton’s voting and residency records, as well as his business practices.

While Norton says that he has “a real problem” with Griset, he does not think his election to the council would be divisive.

“I respect the mayor, and I respect McGuigan,” Norton said. “I think through my endorsements I’ve brought a lot of diverse groups together.”

Norton is endorsed by the city’s police and firefighter associations and by mobile homeowner associations.

Norton said that even though the city and police union finally came to terms on a contract, the same problems remain.