Ruling Says Irvine Group May Challenge Cosgrove Seat

The state attorney general’s office has ruled that a group of Irvine residents may take Councilman Cameron Cosgrove to Superior Court to determine if he was legally awarded a seat on the five-member Irvine City Council last year.

The ruling Friday by Deputy Atty. Gen. Anthony S. DaVigo in favor of Irvine Pride, a group of conservative activists, allows them to legally challenge Cosgrove’s right to the council seat vacated by slow-growth advocate Larry Agran, who was elected mayor of Irvine last June.

Cosgrove, 31, an insurance executive and city planning commissioner, came in third in the election for two City Council seats. Under the terms of the city charter, however, his vote total allowed him to be appointed to the council to fill the remaining 2 years of Agran’s seat.

But matters became more complicated when, on the same ballot, Irvine voters approved Measure D, which allows for the challenge of an appointment of a runner-up like Cosgrove.

Cosgrove and his supporters, including Agran, have argued that Measure D may not be applied retroactively to Cosgrove. In his ruling, however, DaVigo disagreed.

Members of Irvine Pride, headed by attorney Howard Klein, could not be reached for comment Saturday.

Cosgrove, however, noted that Irvine Pride had tried unsuccessfully to unseat him twice before by taking the matter to Superior Court.

An attorney for Irvine Pride had asked that the state attorney general look into the matter, which it did under the authority of a statute to determine whether such suits constitute political harassment. The ruling Friday, in effect, said that it did not.

It is unclear, however, if Irvine Pride will actually take Cosgrove, whose term expires in July, 1990, to court. The length of time involved in reaching a verdict in such a case might make the matter moot.

“As this process unfolds, I intend to follow it wherever it leads me,” Cosgrove said. “And if it does go to court, I think that the judge will rule in our favor. I believe, and a number of attorneys have advised me, that Measure D cannot be applied retroactively in an election. I believe that is the fundamental issue that would be revealed in a trial.”

Cosgrove said the efforts by Irvine Pride amount to “two people (the group’s leaders) telling 11,000 people, ‘Your vote for Cameron Cosgrove didn’t count.’ ”