Troubles in Tustin : Contentious Council’s Meetings Turn Into Political Free-for-Alls

If it was a television soap opera, the show would probably be dubbed “As the Council Turns” or maybe “The Council and the Restless.”

A small-town city council is convulsed by internal dissension and strife. Marathon meetings echo with finger-jabbing shouts and clenched-teeth insults. Council members accuse one another of everything from lying and slander to attending sessions drunk and falling asleep at the height of debates.

But this isn’t some afternoon soap. It’s city government, Tustin style.

In recent months, municipal politics in this city of nearly 47,000 have been decidedly unsettled, as three longtime council members have squared off with two relative newcomers in a series of battles having more to do with style than substance.

While cable broadcasts of the council meetings are hardly going to challenge “Roseanne” for supremacy in the Nielsen ratings, they have become must viewing for many residents. Before one recent meeting was rebroadcast, the cable firm ran a teaser: “Back by popular demand!”

The politicos themselves, searching for ways to describe the fast-escalating war of words, continually fall back on TV comparisons.

“We have all the identifiable characters of a soap,” said Mayor Ursula E. Kennedy, who has teamed with Councilmen Ronald B. Hoesterey and Richard B. Edgar in the fight. “I think it’s a combination of Wally George, Morton Downey Jr. and ‘Saturday Night Live.’ It’s so unbelievable as to be entertainment.”

Indeed. Consider the council’s Sept. 18 meeting:

* Councilman Earl J. Prescott turned the back of his swivel chair to the audience, propped up his feet on a glass display case, shut his eyes and remained that way for about 20 minutes. He later explained to reporters that he had wrenched his back and was simply trying to ease the pain. “Adlai Stevenson used to put his feet on the table and show a little shoe leather, and so did John Kennedy and Clint Eastwood,” he noted.

* Later, his feet firmly on the floor, Prescott joined his ally, Councilman John Kelly, in a verbal blitzkrieg against Edgar and Hoesterey, demanding that they either apologize or resign for past comments.

“I demand your apology,” Prescott yelled at one juncture. “You ought to be ashamed! Shame on you!”

Edgar, chairman of the meeting in Kennedy’s absence, groused that “the childishness” of Prescott and Kelly was an embarrassment and hammered the gavel until the pair quieted, but not before Kelly shouted, “Richard, you are out of order with that!” and Prescott chimed in, saying “Censorship reigns supreme at the Tustin City Council!”

* At one point, Prescott and Kelly left the council chambers in the middle of a presentation on a proposed 65-foot tower at a new shopping complex, prompting a delay in the proceedings until they returned a few minutes later.

* The trouble spilled outside the council chambers. In an interview last week, Edgar said he felt Prescott had slept during the meeting. “He snored a little, so I would suspect he was asleep,” Edgar said. Prescott countered that such allegations were ridiculous. Although he acknowledged closing his eyes, Prescott said he never fell asleep. “Dick Edgar has sat up there and fallen asleep facing the audience,” Prescott said.

Some Tustin residents are less than amused.

Roger Evans was sitting at home watching the Sept. 18 session on the local community cable access channel when he became so outraged by the shenanigans that he hopped on his bicycle, rode the half mile to City Hall and told the council to knock it off.

“I am appalled, disgusted,” Evans said, targeting Prescott. “I’m talking about ethical manners . . . I am embarrassed.”

Those in the longtime council majority say they’ve never had days like this before. “We’ve had many political differences in the past on the council, but we’ve always handled them in a professional manner,” Hoesterey said. “Last week’s meeting was probably the worst I’ve attended in my more than nine years on the council.”

Through it all, the council majority has typecast Prescott and Kelly as the Wally George and Morton Downey Jr. of Tustin. But the two freshmen councilmen have their share of supporters, who applaud the dynamic duo’s zeal in fighting for what they believe.

“Earl and John seem determined that they’re not going to file in and do just what’s expected,” said Mark Bachan, a bookstore manager and writer. “They’re going to really dig into issues. That means speaking bluntly, calling a spade a spade.”

The council pair agree that they are sometimes blunt and often outspoken, but say such behavior is needed to successfully guide Tustin down the proper road. They contend that the old guard council members have grown fat and lazy, acting as “a rubber stamp” for decisions made by the city staff.

“What are we supposed to be? A rose and garden society?” Prescott growled. “John and I are young guys and we’re not afraid about being vocal about differences of opinion. We don’t just talk around the issue, but hit it head-on.”

Of late, the issue they have been hitting head-on has been a proposed $1-million property tax rebate for a redevelopment project in south Tustin that will include a Marriott Hotel and a Carl’s Jr. restaurant. Although city administrators say the subsidy is needed to make the development viable, Prescott and Kelly have called it a “million-dollar raid on the city treasury” and “a scandal.”

In recent weeks, however, the tussle has veered away from the weightier aspects of the redevelopment debate, focusing instead on the vicissitudes of the English language.

After a heated discussion on the controversial project at the council’s July 17 meeting, Kelly mentioned that he would soon be attending a seminar in Monterey on redevelopment and quipped, “ . . . I hope it’s very helpful and that we can put a lot of this redevelopment crookedness out of our community.”

At a council meeting a few weeks later, Hoesterey said he was appalled that Kelly had labeled Carl’s Jr. restaurant czar Carl Karcher as well as leaders of the Marriott Corp. as crooks.

Kelly, who considers Orange County resident Karcher a personal hero, was shocked by what he heard, saying Hoesterey had twisted his July 17 comments. Backed by Prescott, he demanded an apology. Hoesterey refused, and the semantic tug-of-war has raged ever since.

Lawsuit Threatened

For a time, Kelly threatened to sue Hoesterey for slander, but backed down after he learned that city tax funds could be used to defend his council opponent. Undeterred, he promises to continue the fight, and hints that he may call for the censure of Hoesterey when the council meets again Monday night. He’ll have the full support of Prescott.

But their council opponents say it is Kelly who needs to learn manners.

“Mr. Hoesterey paraphrased and summarized when he said what he thought,” Mayor Kennedy argued. “He felt we had all been called crooks. And so did I. So I don’t feel an apology is in order, except from Mr. Kelly.”

Amid the tumult, Kelly suggests that his council opponents have ganged up on Prescott and him because the pair are younger and have fewer years on the council. Kelly, 27, was elected in 1986, while Prescott, 35, was appointed to fill a vacant seat in 1987 and elected in 1988. Hoesterey, 39, Kennedy, 52, and Edgar, 67, have more than three decades of combined experience on the council.

“It’s very convenient for them to refer to younger people such as us as immature, childish, those kinds of things,” Kelly said. “The older generation is very indifferent to younger people when it comes to political matters.”

Edgar, however, said the problems on the council have more to do with behavior than birthdays.

“I find a lot of their activity really counterproductive,” he said. “I just wish they’d concentrate on something like providing a better water system or street system for the city instead of wasting time on a lot of rhetoric and debate on issues we have no control over.”

‘AS THE COUNCIL TURNS’

A night in the life of Tustin’s City Council, Sept. 18:

Act I: Councilman Earl J. Prescott turns the back of his chair to the audience and remains that way for 20 minutes.

Act II: Later, Prescott demands that two colleagues either apologize or resign for past comments, saying: “I demand your apology. You ought to be ashamed!”

Act III: At one point, Prescott and another councilman leave during a presentation on a shopping complex, prompting a delay until they return.

Act IV: Councilman Richard B. Edgar later says he thought Prescott had slept during the meeting. “He snored a little, so I would suspect he was asleep.”

Act V: Prescott says he closed his eyes but never fell asleep. “Dick Edgar has sat up there and fallen asleep facing the audience,” Prescott says.

TUSTIN: A COMMUNITY PROFILE

Incorporated: Sept. 21, 1927

Area: 10.8 square miles

Population: est. 46,800

Median household income: est. $32,390

Council members:

Richard Edgar (1974-78 and 80-present)

Ursula Kennedy (1978-present)

Ronald Hoesterey (1980-present)

John Kelly (1986-present)

Earl Prescott (appointed 1987, elected 1988-present)