TUSTIN : April 2 Court Date Set in Election Fight

Although absentee ballots have begun trickling into City Hall, it remains uncertain whether the City Council election will take place as scheduled April 10.

As the result of an order issued by the city clerk, preparations for the election are proceeding and 61 absentee ballots had arrived as of Friday afternoon. But if Tustin Councilmen John Kelly and Earl J. Prescott prevail in court on April 2, the election might be delayed.

Superior Court Judge David H. Brickner set the hearing date on Friday to settle the legality of the election that Kelly and Prescott are trying to block.

In their suit, Prescott and Kelly question City Clerk Mary E. Wynn’s authority to issue the order establishing precincts and appointing election workers. They are asking the court to invalidate the ordinance that called for moving the election from November to April.

Attorneys for Wynn and the city argued that a hearing should not be set before April 10 because the city has already spent thousands of dollars on the election, campaigns are under way and absentee ballots are already arriving.

But Brickner said that waiting to settle the issue until after the election is like waiting until you are at the bottom of a water slide to see if there is any water there.

The two councilmen maintain that the ordinance is invalid because it was adopted by a council majority that included former Councilman Ronald B. Hoesterey, who they say was no longer a resident at the time he voted in favor of the April election.

Mayor Richard B. Edgar, Councilwoman Ursula E. Kennedy and other city officials maintain that Hoesterey was a resident at the time of the vote, that the election is valid and that Wynn has the authority to set up the election.