‘Council Majority’ remains in power

Barbara Diamond

If the preliminary election results hold, the balance of power will

not be tilted on the City Council.

With provisional and some absentee ballots still uncounted,

challenger Jane Egly has a comfortable lead, followed by Mayor Cheryl

Kinsman’s. Incumbent Wayne Baglin trails.

Kinsam’s re-election would keep intact what has been dubbed the

“Council Majority” -- the mayor, Councilwoman Elizabeth Pearson and

Councilman Steve Dicterow, united in support of moving the city’s

Maintenance Yard to the Act V parking lot, a bitterly contested

issue, which council members Toni Iseman and Baglin opposed.

Opponents of the relocation lost no ground when voters swept Egly

into office.

Egly opposed the relocation as vehemently as Baglin. She will be

allied with Iseman, a leader in the opposition to the relocation.

Baglin and Egly both claim environmentalist credentials, although

Egly is more focused on land issues, opposed to using the Open Space

Fund to maintain the Bluebelt. Both have expressed qualms about City

Manager Ken Frank and have questioned the city’s budget process.

The council majority has confidence in the staff and the city’s

financial stability, but supported an overhaul of the financial

system, which would make obtaining information less formidable to the

average citizen.

Although the council direction might not change, perhaps the tone

will. Egly campaigned on a platform of civility.

“If I can make someone giggle, we can work together,” she said.

Egly had an insurmountable 5,575 votes announced early Wednesday

morning. Kinsman was 634 votes behind Egly and 263 votes ahead of

Baglin.

Kinsman’s husband and election advisor did not expect the

uncounted ballots to change the order of the finish.

Baglin was not available for comment at press time.

Martha Anderson, running unopposed, was elected City Clerk with

7,909 votes in the early count, about half of the 17,435 eligible

voters in Laguna Beach. Incumbent City Treasurer Laura Parisi, also

unopposed, had 7,869, as of Wednesday morning.

A final count is not expected before today, at the earliest, and

will include the city’s vote on national and state offices and ballot

measures, certification to follow.

MONEY COUNTS

The council race was one of the most expensive in city history.

Egly, who reported spending the most money as of Oct. 22 to get

elected, collected the most votes of the three council candidates and

a committee that spent the most money to defeat a candidate,

succeeded.

“I would like to see an election post-mortem to determine who

spent money, where it came from and what they hoped to gain from it,”

Iseman said on the eve of the election.

Citizens for Good, Honest Government and Civility in Local

Government and Therefore Against Wayne Baglin, reported raising

$36,000 and spending more than $49,000 to defeat the veteran

councilman, according to a statement filed Nov. 1.

The statement did not include a $15,000 contribution by Ohana

Holdings LLC reported separately on Oct. 19, which would up the

contributions to $51,000.

“We were just a bunch of folks who had issues with Baglin that we

thought should come before the community,” said Doug Kari, senior

vice president of Arbitech LLC, executives of which donated the

majority of the funds to the anti-Baglin war chest.

“We didn’t see ourselves as watchdogs, but we wanted people to sit

up and take notice.”

Speculation was rife in town about Arbitech’s motives for its

campaign against Baglin, and who might have been pulling the strings.

“Everyone thought we were trying to advance business issues, but

we had already resolved those issues with the city,” Kari said. “And

nobody was telling us what to do.”

Ohana Holdings is an investor in Montage Resort and Spa in Laguna

Beach in partnership with developer Athens Group and hotel operator

Montage Hotels and Resorts, and the proposed Montage Hotel in Beverly

Hills.

Baglin said at a couple of candidate forums that Montage had

laundered money into the campaign against him.

“The only thing Montage launders is sheets and towels,” resort

spokeswoman Marguerite Clark said. “Montage was never involved in the

anti-Baglin campaign, but we did contribute financially to a poll of

the voters.”

The Montage partnership is in discussions with the county to

determine the possibilities of expanding the nine-hole golf course at

Aliso Creek Inn, which it owns, to 18 holes plus a residential

component.

Baglin is on record as opposing any development into open space.

He has also been critical of the resort’s parking solutions.

Going on past history, Baglin will likely become a fervid council

watchdog, with special focus on the Aliso Creek project, water

quality, the Village Entrance and the construction of senior and

community centers on Third Street. He opposed the site for a senior

center, but could not vote against it because he owns property within

500 feet.

This was Baglin’s sixth run for council, three of them successful,

none for consecutive terms.

He was defeated in the 1998 election that put Iseman in office on

her first run for the City Council, but became her ally after he

successfully campaigned for office in 2000. They co-chaired the

Wastewater Advisory Committee.

Egly, who was outspent in a losing campaign in 2000, reported

donations of $37,821 in the most recent disclosure statement for the

2004 election: $12,000 more than Baglin reported. Kinsman had

reported raising about $10,000 more than Baglin.

The next campaign statements are not due until Jan. 31, a final

accounting.

CAMPAIGN DEEMED ‘UGLY’

The 2004 campaign exacerbated divisions among the city leaders,

who have been unable to reach a compromise on issues of vital

importance to the city and suspect the motivation of opponents.

“This is the ugliest campaign I have ever seen in Laguna,” said

retiring City Clerk Verna Rollinger.

In addition to the aggressive campaign against Baglin, Laguna

Terrace Park, owned by Steve Esslinger, funded an anti-Egly campaign

and Village Laguna targeted Kinsman.

The national election set the pace.

“I know the country is divided, but I think it will work out,”

Democrat Mary Raabe said election night at the headquarters of the

Laguna Beach Democratic Club, which supported Egly.

Egly’s victory was a high point for club members, sorely

disappointed in the national results.

All ’04 One Founder Barbara McMurray found solace even though Bush

was re-elected, which her nonpartisan organization opposed. She took

comfort in the successful effort to mobilize the country.

“We are at the moment an aware electorate, one that is on the cusp

of realizing its true power and we won’t pipe down just because the

scary, mean-spirited right-wingers yell louder than we do and can do

that popping thing with their neck veins,” McMurray said.

“My hope is that this momentum doesn’t slip

away ... “