Planning Commissioner May Be Ousted : Politics: The Anaheim City Council will vote tonight whether to remove Glenn Hellyer, who is accused of violating the city’s code of ethics.

Calling for the resignation of Planning Commissioner Glenn Hellyer, City Councilman William D. Ehrle said Monday that the planning official’s private business interests and recent sharp criticism of council members violate the city’s code of ethics.

Ehrle said Hellyer’s business dealings run afoul of code sections prohibiting commerce “not compatible with public duty.” He also charged that Hellyer’s statements in an interview constitute “abusive conduct, personal charges or verbal attacks upon the character, motives, ethics or morals of the . . . members of the council.” Both standards are spelled out in the code established in 1988.

“The man has violated the code, and that is enough for me,” Ehrle said.

Ehrle is at the front of a movement to oust Hellyer from his post on the planning panel, and even Hellyer’s backers say the commissioner is expected to have a difficult time surviving an expected council vote on his tenure tonight.

But Hellyer and a supporter on the council contend that Ehrle is leading a three-member coalition seeking to boost a rival planning commissioner’s chances of gaining a council seat.

Councilman Irv Pickler, who nominated Hellyer to the post three years ago, said he believed that there would be a council majority tonight to remove the commissioner. Pickler predicted that Ehrle, Councilman Bob D. Simpson and Mayor Fred Hunter would cast votes against Hellyer. Simpson and Hunter could not be reached for comment Monday.

“Here’s a guy who’s done an excellent job,” Pickler said of Hellyer. “He represents a new generation of leadership in the city. I’m distraught about it.”

Hellyer described the potential action against him as a “little game they are playing, and they are mad because I’m not playing along.”

The commissioner referred to what he believes is a move to improve the political standing of fellow Planning Commissioner Robert Zemel by ousting Hellyer. Zemel is a candidate for City Council and an ally of Ehrle, Simpson and Hunter. He could not be reached for comment Monday.

Ehrle has criticized Hellyer’s interest in a local restaurant and his role in the relocation of another, saying the activity gives the appearance of conflict with Hellyer’s duties on the commission.

Both establishments are inside the city’s redevelopment area. Hellyer, as chairman of the city’s seven-member Planning Commission, presides over a range of development requests and applications within the city.

Ehrle also said Hellyer violated the city’s ethics code when he lashed out at council members two weeks ago after learning that the council had discussed seeking his resignation in a closed session.

“Screw them,” said Hellyer in the interview. “If they don’t have the stones to call me when they have a problem, screw them.”

According to the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission, planning agency members are prohibited from acquiring property within redevelopment zones.

But City Atty. Jack L. White has said that the prohibition does not extend to investing in businesses leased from property owners within the zone, such as Hellyer’s $20,000 investment in Yves’ Bistro, or in brokering lease agreements in the same area, as the commissioner has with the Rose & Crown bar.

City records show that Hellyer abstained from voting on Yves Bistro’s October, 1991 request for a permit to sell alcoholic beverages. He said he also plans to abstain when permits are considered for the Rose & Crown.

White has said that Hellyer’s activities have not violated state conflict of interest laws but that “the appearance is for other people to determine.”

Ehrle denies any political motivations in pursuing the commissioner’s removal, adding that he and others on the council have been concerned that Hellyer’s private business dealings “appear” to conflict with his government duty.

In a Monday letter to the City Council, Hellyer said there is speculation that the “real culprit” is Newport Beach lobbyist Frank Elfend, one of the largest contributors to political campaigns in Anaheim and who, the commissioner said, is a Zemel backer.

“Popular thinking is that Mr. Elfend believes me to be too independent, and in some way a threat to his political agenda,” the letter stated. “I was told recently that Frank Elfend is in fact bragging publicly that he has lined up three council votes to ‘pick Glenn Hellyer off the Planning Commission.’ ”

Elfend said he was “shocked” by Hellyer’s letter, adding that they were “absolutely and emphatically incorrect.”

“Glenn Hellyer and I have been friends,” Elfend said. “I’ve always had a positive relationship with Glenn. I’m sorry to hear him say that.”