Political Return Foreseen for Ousted MWD Director Nolan

Michael Nolan was smiling Tuesday night when he left Burbank City Hall after the City Council ousted him as its representative to the Metropolitan Water District.

Nolan, who had pleaded with the council only a few hours earlier to let him keep the post, seemed to take his defeat in stride. He told friends he was going to get some ice cream.

But despite his calm, City Hall insiders quietly predicted that Nolan, who came under fire for running up unsubstantiated travel expenses while serving on the board, would not disappear from the local political scene.

Some Burbank political figures had seen the council’s appointment to the MWD board in 1985 of Nolan--one of the most outspoken critics of the council and city staff--as a way to placate him, heading off his constant criticisms of city bureaucracy.

“He’s going to become the Mike Nolan of old,” an associate of Nolan’s predicted Wednesday. “They’re going to be sorry. He’s going to really go after them now, pulling records and everything.”

Nolan did not return phone calls Wednesday.

Even though he had two years left in his term, Nolan was removed from the 51-member MWD board, which governs an agency that supplies water to 13 million Southern Californians, when the council voted 4 to 1 to dismiss him, saying they felt he had embarrassed the city.

The Times reported last week that Nolan traveled more than any other board member during the last two years, failed to file expense reports and listed $75,000 in expenses last year that had not been accounted for.

Nolan was also criticized for what some MWD members called an abrasive and confrontational manner. They said his effectiveness at sorting out issues and gathering facts was undercut by his gruff, aggressive demeanor.

Nolan did not specifically mention those charges when he spoke Tuesday before a meeting at which the council reviewed all city appointments to boards and commissions. Instead, he extolled his dedication and hard work on the water board.

“I promised I would work hard, and I have,” he told the council. “I have been open with you, I have shared with you and I have been honest with you.”

Some MWD directors said they felt Nolan’s removal was prompted by Burbank city politics. He is considered an ally of former Councilwoman Mary Lou Howard, who often clashed with other council members before she was voted out of office in April.

Nolan’s replacement on the board is former Burbank Mayor Larry Stamper, who was one of Nolan’s targets before Stamper lost his council seat in 1985.

Other MWD directors said the revelations were part of a plot by directors opposed to Nolan. “There was a copious and determined effort by the Met to sack Mike,” said Timothy Brick, a board member from Pasadena. “Now they’ve scored a short-term victory.”

Christine Reed, a board member from Santa Monica and a Nolan supporter, said: “Mike got a bad rap. He was singled out for what many other directors could have been criticized for.”

She said Nolan’s removal “will present great difficulty for all of us. Mike was the hardest-working director in terms of gathering and storing information, and he was a real information resource for me and other directors . . . because a lot of us didn’t have the time to put in that he had.”

“Mike Nolan has been one of the better water-oriented directors we had at MWD,” said John Killefer, another director, who raised questions last week about Nolan’s expenses. “I’m just sorry he didn’t recognize the need for accountability.”