Our Laguna -- Barbara Diamond

The City Council affirmed its confidence in its appointed commissions

Tuesday night by reappointing four incumbents to the Arts Commission and

three to the Planning Commission.

Jan Sattler, Mike Taulber and Les Thomas will serve two-year terms on

the Arts Commission. All three got five council votes. Dora Wexall was

appointed to a one-year term as alternate. She got four votes.

Anne Johnson and Robert Zur Schmiede were reappointed to the Planning

Commission with five council votes each. Bob Chapman garnered three

votes.

Applicants are required to be residents of the city and were asked

specifically to give their residential addresses during the oral

interview by the council. Wexall had used a mailing service address on

her application and stated it at the interview.

Mayor Wayne Baglin pointed out her error.

He said he had been advised that she had been fined by the Fair

Political Practices Commission for the badly prepared paperwork. City

Clerk Verna Rollinger had notified Wexall by telephone and letter that

her paperwork needed revision.

Wexall stated on her application that she has lived in Laguna Beach

for 18 years. She exhibits at the Sawdust Festival and has served three

years on its board of directors, including two years as president. She

has been a board member of the Laguna Beach Craft Guild for nine years.

Sattler sat on the Arts Commission for five years prior to the latest

appointment. She was involved from the beginning with the public art

project for the Laguna Colony Hotel.

“I strongly believe that I should continue to serve until Treasure

Island Park is compete and open,” she said. “Continuity is important.”

Sattler initiated the artist-designed bench program. Five benches have

been installed, with a sixth soon to be completed. She also serves on the

commission’s public art subcommittee for Brown’s Park, which will be

dedicated at noon July 23.

The mayor also said that attendance records were a high priority with

the council in its appointments.

Chapman defended his absences from Planning Commission meetings due to

business or family.

“I am asking to be reappointed for a fourth term and I know what time

and commitment is involved,” he said.

He also said he might recuse himself from voting on the contentious

Driftwood project because he missed some hearings. Chapman has been a

resident of Laguna 18 years. He is general manager of a residential real

estate brokerage and serves on the boards of the Orange Coast Assn. of

Realtors and the California Assn. of Realtors. He is a past director of

the Laguna board.

Johnson has lived in Laguna Beach part-time for 33 years and full-time

for 16 years. She came originally from New England and one can still

detect Boston in her speech.

Although retired from teaching college, Johnson works part-time for

the Laguna Beach Unified School District and is active on the Vision

Laguna Committee and Laguna Beach Woman’s Club board. She is a member of

Laguna Greenbelt Inc. and the Patriots Day Parade Committee and

previously served on the city’s Recreation Committee.

“I believe my work as a volunteer with a variety of groups and

individuals has enabled me to better understand Laguna Beach, this

interesting and challenging city,” she said.

Zur Schmiede served on the Design Review Board before he was appointed

to the Planning Commission in April 2001. He is a professional in

community development, employed by the city of Long Beach. He also worked

for the cities of Anaheim, Fullerton and Flora, Ind.

Zur Schmiede has lived in Laguna Beach for six-plus years. He is a

past trustee of the Fullerton Museum Center.

A LITTLE SIGN LANGUAGE

Anyone who knows Eleanor Henry or Jeannie Bernstein knows where to

find them on Saturday mornings.

They are two of the standard bearers flashing antiwar signs for two

hours at the Cobblestone area of Main Beach. Bernstein and her late

friend, Peter Carr, founded the Laguna Beach Peace Vigil in 1979 under

the auspices of the Alliance for Survival.

“We kept the vigil going all during the Cold War,” Bernstein said. “We

were out there every Saturday for 11 years from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

“And we are still there. We would welcome anyone who wants to hold up

a sign for 10 minutes or for two hours. Mostly people are very receptive

and we really appreciate the cooperation from our police department.”

Cooperation goes both ways. The vigil got tremendous response to its

“Honk 4 Peace” signs but stopped carrying them at the request of police.

Vigil participation waxes and wanes with world conditions. Right now

there are four regulars: Bernstein, Henry, Irene Bland and Elizabeth

Erger.

“Cartoonist Phil Interlandi’s LOLITS -- Little Old Ladies in Tennis

Shoes -- are back,” Henry said.

However, some of these LOLITS need track shoes to keep up their busy

schedules.

Henry designs clothing, which she has exhibited and sold for 18 years

at the Sawdust Festival. Tuesday she painted her booth in the afternoon

and then appeared at the City Council meeting that night to protest the

way the sewer increase will be levied.

She moved to Laguna Beach on June 21, 1961 and raised her four

children here.

“I joined the Alliance for Survival in 1987 at the urging of my

youngest son, Kevin, who had signed a petition,” Henry said. “He was 15.”

Henry takes her grandchildren on trips to the Nevada test site for

educational purposes and possible arrest for civil disobedience.

“Hey, this is what Grandma does,” she said. “Once we had three

generations running across the desert.”

She wears a T-shirt that reads “Well-mannered women rarely become

famous.”

Bernstein is a member of the Sierra Club and the ACLU. She is a past

president of the Alliance for Survival, and currently serves on the board

of the Laguna Canyon Conservancy and is a founding member of the Aliso &

Hobo Canyon Neighborhood Assn.

She has participated in Earth First actions to stop the toll road

through Laguna Canyon and supports the Great Park and any open space.

“The First Amendment is muscle; if you don’t use it, it atrophies,”

she said.

TESTING: ONE, TWO, THREE

Laguna Beach High School graduate Margaux Thomas has a summer project.

Last year she began testing the ocean on a weekly basis at 10

different sites and started the first Surfrider Club on campus. Now that

school is out, Margaux is looking for volunteers to continue the testing.

“Anyone who would like to take part can contact me at

MargauxSurfrider@hotmail.com,” she announced Tuesday at the City Council

meeting.

Village Laguna President Ginger Osborne introduced Margaux, the

group’s scholarship winner, recognized for her environmental activities.

Margaux said the tests take only about 5 minutes. She expects

participation from all age groups. Testing, she said, can make a

difference, particularly to beach users.

She also urged people to attend monthly Surfrider meetings to speak

their minds about water quality.

* OUR LAGUNA is a regular feature of the Laguna Beach Coastline Pilot.

Contributions are welcomed. Write to Barbara Diamond, P.O. Box 248,

Laguna Beach, 92652; hand-deliver to 384 Forest Ave., Suite 22; call

494-4321; or fax 494-8979.