Rollinger tosses hat in the ring

Seven-term city clerk will seek City Council seat in November election.SEE CORRECTION FOLLOWING STORY.

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The political season in Laguna Beach is heating up with the announcement Sunday that former city clerk Verna Rollinger will run for a seat on the City Council this year. Three of the five council seats are open in the Nov. 7 election.

All three incumbents whose terms are up -- Mayor Elizabeth Pearson-Schneider, Steve Dicterow and Toni Iseman -- have said they will run for reelection. But only Pearson-Schneider has launched a formal campaign, with her first fundraiser planned for this Sunday.

The first day for prospective candidates to file papers with the city clerk’s office indicating their intention to run is July 17. The deadline for nomination papers is Aug. 11, unless the period is extended because one of the incumbents decides not to seek reelection.

Rollinger served 29 years in the city clerk post -- an elected position -- winning seven consecutive elections before retiring in December 2004.

She implemented the city’s groundbreaking domestic-partner ordinance in 1992, performing civil-partnership ceremonies from her desk at City Hall for many same-sex couples.

Rollinger said that she has received pleas to run from her friends and supporters over the last year.

One friend, former mayor Sally Bellerue, “told me that I either have to run or move out of town. I’ve worked too hard to help make Laguna Beach the special place it is to ever leave,” Rollinger said.

She attended a “Let’s Get Verna to Run” party on Jan. 8 at the home of Phyllis Sweeney, where more than 100 supporters pledged their support and signed up to help with the campaign.

“I’m overwhelmed with this outpouring of support,” Rollinger said. “I want to bring this good-government approach and customer-service orientation to the City Council and help benefit all the residents of Laguna Beach.

“As in my previous races, I plan to run an independent, spirited, full-on, positive campaign. I will walk Laguna’s neighborhoods to meet residents one-on-one, so that we can talk about issues, problems and goals, and ways to make the city better.”

A local resident for more than 35 years, Rollinger said she wants to preserve the city from overdevelopment and to increase open space.

“We have the tools, ordinances and general plan policies to preserve our neighborhoods and downtown; we need the will to enforce them,” she said.

“We must extend our open space -- both the inner space in our neighborhoods and the surrounding greenbelt -- to expand our breathing room.”

Rollinger has led the effort to make City Hall records available online. She was instrumental in the creation of the city’s first website in 1996 and has pressed city staff and the council to fund expansion of the online system to better serve residents.

Rollinger spearheaded a fundraising drive that netted almost $7,000 in private donations through Jan. 10.

“The city was at the point of placing all its archives and current records online, where they would be available to the public through office and home computers, when budget cuts required by the June landslide put the plan on hold,” Rollinger said.

“As city clerk, I helped produce the database and hoped it would be online before I retired in December 2004,” she said. “The final step involves the purchase of a duplicate server to be placed outside the city’s website firewall at a cost of $21,000, although it will probably cost less.”

Rollinger also wants to tackle the city’s traffic problems.

“We can enhance our transit and shuttle systems, create new peripheral parking options and borrow successful solutions from other cities to deal with our traffic and circulation problems,” she said.

Disaster response and safety issues are also on her agenda.

“We need to dedicate the staff and capital resources necessary to ensure that the city’s infrastructure, public safety equipment and emergency preparedness tools are second to none,” Rollinger said. “We know the effects of floods, slides, fires and earthquakes, and must be prepared to respond quickly.”

“More attention must be paid to improving ocean-water quality to prevent health impacts on residents and visitors, particularly those on our children,” she added.

Rollinger counts among her supporters two of the three council members she may be facing in November: Dicterow and Iseman.

FOR THE RECORD

A story in the Jan. 20 Coastline Pilot, “Rollinger tosses hat in the ring,” incorrectly suggested that Laguna Beach City Councilman Steve Dicterow has endorsed Verna Rollinger as a candidate for City Council. He has not.20060120i7o7rxkfMARK C. DUSTIN / COASTLINE PILOT(LA)Verna Rollinger, a former city clerk, has announced plans to run for City Council.