Village Laguna endorses candidates for council

Barbara Diamond

City Council incumbent Toni Iseman walked out of the Fred Lang

Park community room Monday night with 41 out of a possible 41 votes

for endorsement by Village Laguna.

“I can’t believe that it was four years ago that I was here,

dragged kicking and screaming -- it was not my idea to run,” Iseman

said. “But I am so grateful that I got my arm twisted. Being on the

council has been one of the most significant things I have done in my

lifetime.”

Village Laguna also endorsed Wastewater Advisory Board member

Melissa O’Neal for City Council and Kathryn Turner and Betsy Jenkins

for the school board.

All four were endorsed on the first ballot. A two-thirds majority

of the voting members present were required for endorsement. No one

at the meeting could remember a previous unanimous vote for

endorsement. Ann Christoph, one of four former mayors at the meeting,

said it was possible that Bob Gentry pulled it off in one of his

campaigns.

“These are different times,” said Phyllis Sweeney, also a former

mayor. “There is no dramatic issue.”

The group voted to spend up to $20,000 to get its endorsees

elected. It has $35,275.60 in its war chest, according to a campaign

disclosure statement filed July 29, covering Jan. 1 through June 31.

O’Neal received 37 votes. Jenkins picked up 36 votes; Turner, 27.

Thomas C. Wilson, not to be confused with Supervisor Tom Wilson,

came in third in the school board balloting with 16 votes. School board incumbent Robert Whalen received 13 votes. Fellow board member

El Hathaway spoke at the meeting on behalf of Whalen, who was out of

town.

“I am honored to serve with him,” Hathaway said. All candidates

were invited to make presentations. Under the group’s rules,

candidates can be endorsed without asking for it.

“Steve (Councilman Dicterow) told me he was not seeking

endorsement from any group, but would accept it,” Village Laguna

President Bette Anderson said. Council candidates Dicterow and

Elizabeth Pearson each received three votes. Neither attended the

meeting, both said they would be out of town.

Each candidate was given three minutes to make a statement and 1

1/2 minutes to respond to questions prepared by Christoph and

endorsement-meeting organizer Doug Reilly.

“I think I can offer you a clear vision to effectively manage

inevitable change while preserving the unique character and values of

our community,” O’Neal said in her opening statement.

“My experience, education and entrepreneurial drive allow me to

think outside the bureaucratic box.”

Asked about the Village Entrance project, Iseman and O’Neal said

they favored the contest-winning project designed by StudiOnEleven as

the most appropriate.

“It is a problem-solving project that doesn’t draw attention to

itself,” Iseman said.

The Village Entrance was one of the first issues O’Neal heard

about when she moved to town in 1989.

“Little did I know that it had been discussed for decades before

that and here we are 13 years later,” O’Neal said. “I think the

contest was a great idea. We now own the intellectual property of all

the entries.”

Both council candidates agreed that neighborhood character has to

be respected when new buildings or remodels are planned and that the

rules governing development need to be simplified.

“The process has become so arduous and complicated, applicants

have to have outside consultants represent them,” O’Neal said. Iseman

and O’Neal also expressed concern about the loss of resident-serving

businesses downtown, the most recent being the news that McCalla’s

Pharmacy’s lease will not be renewed.

“This is a real loss and a personal loss for me,” Iseman said. “We

fought off Rite-Aid and we fought off Long’s and now we are losing a

long-time business to another business that wants to expand. We have

rules about how much a business can expand. Doing business one, two

and three is a way of skirting the rules. “I don’t know what the

answer is. Help me.”

O’Neal said closer collaboration with the Chamber of Commerce is

needed.

Water quality will be a top priority in the next four years and

probably beyond as the city plays catch-up, both candidates said. “I

don’t know if four years is enough,” said O’Neal, whose company

consults with rural communities to provide infrastructure for

drinking and flushing water.

“But we have made great strides in the last year, year and a half,

in up-dating sewer infrastructure.”

Iseman, who co-chairs the Wastewater Advisory Committee and

represents the city on the South Orange County Wastewater Authority,

said relationships need to be built with inland cities, from which

urban run-off contributes to the pollution that ends up on Laguna’s

beaches.

“A member of the board mentioned ‘your’ water off Aliso Beach to

me,” Iseman said. “It’s not my water, it’s our water. It is theirs to

play in and theirs to keep clean.”

Iseman said the city is headed in the right direction, but that

doesn’t mean improvements can’t be made. Parking, particularly in

residential neighborhoods will be one of her priorities. If she is as

persistent with that priority as she was with getting free tram

service to encourage peripheral parking, expect to see

neighborhood-only parking.

“It should be Laguna first,” she said.

However, beautification projects can be in the eye of the

beholder.

“I was at a Woods Cover party recently and spotted a couple of

ratty-looking parked cars,” she said. “I asked if the property owner

wanted them moved. The answer was no, it’s neighborhood character.

“Maybe we can get too cute and too cleaned-up. A community can get

too planned.”

However, one project she favors is cleaning sidewalks, a casualty

of the urban run-off permit, which prohibits water streaming off of

property and into the storm drains.

“Environmental stewardship is closest to my heart,” O’Neal said.

Village Laguna and the League of Women Voters will sponsor a

candidate’s forum on Oct. 7 in the City Council Chamber. All

candidates for the council and the school board will be invited to

participate. Top of the World Neighborhood Association and Temple

Hills Community Assn. also plan to sponsor a forum in the council

chamber, date to be announced.

* BARBARA DIAMOND is a reporter for the Laguna Beach Coastline

Pilot. She may be reached at 494-4321.