NEWS ANALYSIS -- A question of leadership

Torus Tammer

FOUNTAIN VALLEY -- The recent downfall of a once promising city

councilman is not the first time the residents of this normally docile

town have seen one of their city leaders depart under controversial

circumstances.

In a little more than a decade, three council members have come under

fire for a multitude of problems, ranging from soliciting a prostitute,

to drunken driving and not living in city boundaries. The latest brouhaha

that has resulted in the ouster of Chuck Conlosh, a second term

councilman who has been absent from the dais for two months.

Conlosh, a former police officer, resigned from the Huntington Beach

Police Department, checked into a local psychiatric hospital and

forfeited his seat on the council.

Last week, he exceeded the 60-day absentee limit as required by law,

resulting in his council seat being vacated. This after a torrid eight

months in which Conlosh accused “high city officials of wrongdoing” and

concerned his council colleagues by placing his loaded service revolver

on the dais during council meetings.

But a look back at the council’s history shows that despite the city’s

image as a bedroom community, some of its leaders have had their share of

troubles.

On Nov. 7, 1989 voters recalled Councilman Fred Voss from office and

chose to replace him by council appointment rather than a special

election. On May 5 1998, another councilman, Jim Petrikin, after facing

strong criticism from his colleagues, gave notice that he was stepping

down because of medical problems.

Longtime Fountain Valley resident Bob Moss says that he is not sure

whether there is a logical explanation as to why these things have

happened with council members here.

Moss, 78, has lived in the city for 38 years and was one of the

leaders in the recall of Voss.

“One of the problems that they have all had in common is behavioral,”

Moss said. “With Petrikin, it was pills and alcohol, with Voss it was

being with a prostitute; but with Conlosh, it is a little more severe

because [of his stay at the psychiatric hospital]. Hindsight is 20-20 and

initially, it didn’t worry me that he was carrying a gun to council

meetings, but now that I now the circumstances ...”

Moss also said he felt Voss and Petrikin, unlike Conlosh, had been

able to contribute to the city during their tenures as council members.

Something that eventually did not help either one.

Voss was 52 and the mayor of Fountain Valley when he was arrested in

1989 by Santa Ana police during a well-publicized crackdown on

prostitution on Harbor Boulevard in January of that year. After offering

$20 to an undercover officer disguised as a prostitute, Voss was arrested

on suspicion of soliciting sex. He later pleaded no contest to the

misdemeanor charge, was fined $300 and sentenced to three years

probation.

Voters wanted Voss out of office and favored his recall by a nearly

2-1 margin. They also voted to fill his one year left in office by City

Council appointment. But it took two unsuccessful attempts by the City

Council before they appointed Howard Stevens, a former Fountain Valley

city manager and director of finance on Jan. 17 1990.

On May 5 1998, Petrikin ended constant speculation about his council

tenure by resigning a half-hour before his colleagues were to consider

declaring his seat vacant.

Council members believed that Petrikin did not live within the city

boundaries and was therefore not eligible to hold office here.

Indeed, it was learned that Petrikin had filed state homestead papers

declaring Garden Valley (near Placerville), not Fountain Valley, to be

his principal dwelling. State law requires that a council member’s seat

be declared “vacant” when compelling evidence shows the officeholder

lives outside the city that he or she is elected to represent.

Petrikin was also under an ominous cloud after not only missing 12 of

his last 34 council meetings, but for being convicted of drunk driving.

In what now seems an ironic twist, Petrikin wrote and had the

then-newly elected Conlosh read a letter to the council that stated that

Petrikin stepped down because of his continuing medical problems.

At the time, Conlosh also said Petrikin told him to inform the public

that his troubles began when he started mixing pain medication from four

hip surgeries with alcohol. The council remained a four-member unit after

Petrikin’s departure until November 1998 when current Mayor Larry

Crandall was elected to office.

Since 1978, there have been at least two other cases in California

where council members have vacated their seats because of the absentee

statute.

On Nov. 7 1978, then-Monrovia Councilman Ron Decker vacated his seat

after 60 consecutive days of absence.

But on the other occasion, Taft Councilman Donald Braun, ousted on

March 21 1989 under the same law, decided to fight what he thought was an

unfair situation, said Taft City Clerk Norma Robinson.

“Braun challenged it in the superior court of Kern County,” Robinson

said. “But the court upheld the city council’s action and a new person,

Paul Ackermann, was appointed on April 17 1989.”

Fountain Valley resident Warren Diaz, 81, has lived in the city for 20

years and says he really doesn’t know what to make of everything because

all he knows is what he reads in the papers. Diaz said it appeared to him

that Conlosh has opted to step out of politics and that the decision as

to who replaces him should be based on fairness.

“I would suppose that they (the council) would go to the next highest

vote getter,” Diaz said. “I don’t know how the council feels yet, but I

think that would be the fairest thing to do.”