Duvall means empty mayor’s seat for Town Center votes

Lately, the annual selection of a City Council member to serve as the city’s mayor for a 12-month period has been a rather routine event. Council members rotate the job through each official, wisely following a tradition established by the first council in 1967.

Each of the first councilmen served as mayor for six months, allowing all five to hold the position before their terms ended in 1970. Most succeeding councils followed a similar pattern until personal feuding among council members disrupted the process in the 1990s.

Of course, the mayor’s job is largely ceremonial: representing the city at ribbon-cuttings, Boy Scout courts of honor, an annual State of the City luncheon and a prayer breakfast, for instance.

But a key mayoral duty – presiding over council and Redevelopment Agency meetings – will be especially important next year, as council members consider issues related to the controversial Town Center project, adding more housing and commercial space to the downtown area.

Councilman Mike Duvall is scheduled to move into the mayor’s chair at the Dec. 6 reorganization meeting, succeeding the city’s third female mayor, Keri Wilson.

But Duvall, the current mayor pro tem, can’t remain at the dais when Town Center matters are discussed, because of his ownership interest in an Old Town building. As mayor, Duvall would have to turn the gavel over to another council member every time a Town Center item appeared on council and Redevelopment Agency agendas.

He’d return to the center chair only after all of the reports were heard, public testimony taken, discussions held and voting completed on the Old Town issues by his colleagues.
Fortunately, the council has other options.

Next in line after Duvall is Allen Castellano, who served ably three years ago. Or, the council could keep Wilson for another year. She’s become the group’s most independent thinker on density and eminent-domain matters.

Naturally, Duvall would have to voluntarily take his name out of this year’s rotation, since his colleagues wouldn’t push him aside unilaterally. And if Duvall did step aside, he’d lose the visibility the mayor’s job would give him in his June 2006 primary bid for a state Assembly seat.

But don’t expect any public debate Dec. 6. The selection of the new mayor and mayor pro tem will proceed quickly and quietly, almost as if the event were scripted in advance.

A FINAL NOTE – After taming the town’s massage parlors with new regulations two years ago, city officials might tackle the growing trend of hookah bars, where patrons smoke flavored tobacco products through long hoses attached to water pipes.

Main Street business owner Louie Scull recently warned council members about hookah bar perils, although a smoking lounge or café has yet to open within city limits. Scull suggested an ordinance might be needed to prevent such businesses in the future.

Councilman Jim Winder asked the city attorney to determine if the city’s smoking ordinance covers hookah parlors, but no date was set for a report back to the council.

Anaheim adopted a new law after police cited underage drinking and illegal weapons at hookah bars, while residents complained about noise and loitering near parlor premises.

Interesting scene seen around the city

Yorba Linda’s civic life is always interesting. Let’s take a look at the current scene:

DÉJÀ VU AGAIN--A couple recent City Council meetings are reminiscent of sessions during the turbulent 1990s. Of course, council members aren’t calling each other names these days, but some have singled out specific audience members for negative criticism.

Mayor Keri Wilson tries to keep meetings on a business-like level, but it’s difficult to reign in the public after some of her council colleagues excoriate individual speakers.

The council has a sensible policy--“the Mayor may ask that speakers refrain from engaging in personal attacks, name-calling or (campaigning) on any election issue”--which Wilson should consistently enforce for both the public and council members.

TAKING LAND--Some Orange County cities, including Anaheim and Placentia, have adopted policies or laws that prevent their Redevelopment Agencies from using eminent domain to take private property to sell to other private parties for development purposes.

Similar action by Yorba Linda’s governing body would renew faith in the current council and build a wider base of community support for the Town Center redevelopment project.

SPEAKING OUT--Two 1990s council allies and longtime low-density advocates have taken different positions on the controversial Right-to-Vote initiative on the June ballot.

Former three-term Councilman Mark Schwing, who has attended most council meetings since leaving office in 2000, signed the initiative petition. At the Oct. 4 meeting, he spoke eloquently about citizens using the initiative process to guide council members back to the city’s low-density, semi-rural heritage.

Former seven-term Councilman Hank Wedaa, who didn’t sign the petition, says he understands citizen concerns but opposes “government by initiative.” He maintains council members should be allowed to do their jobs for four years and, if voters are unhappy with their decisions, removed during the regular election cycle.

MASSAGE LAW--Approximately 10 to 15 violations have been discovered at the city’s various massage establishments since the council approved strict regulations two years ago.

“The majority of these were for ordinance violations such as no visible permit, no proper business license and inappropriate touching of patrons, that did not reach the level of penal code violations for prostitution,” according to Brea police Sgt. Darrin Devereux.

“We respond to specific complaints and spot check the … establishments with surprise inspections. The inspections are random with no set schedule,” Devereux commented.

No prostitution or solicitation arrests have been made since last year’s incident at a now-defunct Main Street massage parlor, Devereux noted.

A FINAL NOTE--Councilman Jim Winder has twice misrepresented my viewpoint regarding developer donations to council campaigns--at an Oct. 18 council meeting and in an Oct. 20 letter to the editor.

To set the record straight, I’ll quote from one of my past columns: “Most residents recognize [council members] as principled leaders who cast votes they perceive to be in the community’s best interests. They should acknowledge that many residents hold principled concerns about the propriety of taking campaign cash from those whose profits depend on council actions.”

Winder’s assertion that I’ve suggested he’d sell his soul for 30 pieces of silver is absurd.

Student newspaper expands campus coverage

(Note: This story was published in the 45^th anniversary edition of the Daily Titan, the California State University, Fullerton, student newspaper on Nov. 3, 2005. More Daily Titan history information can be found at http://jimdrummonddailytitanhistory.blogspot.com.)

By Jim Drummond
Fall 1965Titan Times Editor

Nearly two generations have passed since this newspaper’s pre-Daily Titan era, the period from the first issue on Jan. 4, 1960, through the spring semester of 1969.

In this one decade, the student newspaper grew from a two-page, twice-monthly summary of campus news events to a thriving, thrice-weekly journal of news and commentary with lively exchanges from readers on the Letters to the Editor page.

Pouring through the past issues of the then-named Titan Times is like looking at old black-and-white photographs of long-gone family members. The hot lead-molded, tabloid-sized pages speak, some say, of a more innocent time in American society.

From the very beginning, the newspaper’s growth in size and frequency of publication reflected the growth of the college, an institution grappling each semester with record-breaking enrollments, constant construction and, of course, the usual parking problems.

The newspaper was the Titan Times, the Titan and, finally, the Daily Titan, as the institution morphed through Orange County State College, Orange State College, California State College at Fullerton and, finally, California State University, Fullerton.

Then--as now--the newsroom was an exciting place to work, a home to many students, as they learned the mechanics of day-to-day journalism, formed lasting friendships and, sometimes, married their co-workers, before taking their first steps into the “real world.”

Naturally, early reporters mainly covered college beats--from the first intercollegiate elephant race to the placement of a time capsule behind a granite slab marked “1963” at the front entrance to the Letters and Science building, since renamed McCarthy Hall.

[The former] event, on May 11, 1962, gained nationwide exposure for a fledgling Orange County State, as many print and broadcast media outlets contacted college officials and newspaper editors about a story showcasing old-fashioned, ‘60s-style student antics.

Elephant races were held for a few more years, but the only remnants of those times are a few small pictures on a wall in the student union, stories and photographs on old library microfilm brittle Titan Times morgue copies and, of course, Tuffy Titan, the campus’ elephant mascot.

Reporters and editors also gained experience covering political events, because all sorts of politicos running for federal, state and local offices stopped by the campus to deliver their stump speeches, including two sitting governors, Pat Brown and Ronald Reagan.

The first student protest covered by the newspaper probably was a gathering opposed to the name change from Orange State College to California State College at Fullerton. “A mouthful of words,” complained one student, who was quoted in the Titan Times story.

Other protests quickly followed, of course, many as a result of the Vietnam War. The newspaper was criticized for its coverage of pro-war events, such as a student-faculty march through campus and into downtown Fullerton, supporting “our fighting men.”

Also criticized was coverage of various anti-war speakers, including faculty members. Even a photograph of two students handing out literature from a “No War Toys” table near the quad came under attack because of alleged bias and prejudice in the photo’s cutline.

The growing war, the high draft calls and the increasing casualty count brought many retorts to the Letters to the Editor section. Students and faculty used the paper to vigorously debate the impact of the controversial conflict on our country and the world.

Newspaper editorials also pointed out some inconsistent behavior on the part of campus teachers. Once, a history professor barred a reporter from attending an organizational meeting of the Students for a Democratic Society, even though the meeting had been advertised in a previous edition of the Titan Times as “open to all interested students.”

And the first anti-Vietnam war advertisement, printed in a 1965 edition, was attacked by some members of the Associated Student Body government. They seriously discussed--certainly not for the last time--cutting the newspaper’s meager student-funded budget.

War and politics were not the only matters covered and commented on in the pages of the Titan Times. Free love, inter-racial relationships, open housing, civil rights, gender roles, drug laws, sexual stereotypes, fluoridated water, obscenity, free speech and press and dozens of other issues (some now quaint vestiges of an earlier era) were common topics.

While the exciting political times and the changing social climate were reflected in the newspaper’s pages, ordinary campus events were never ignored during these years due to the “beat system,” which assigned news reporters to specific coverage responsibilities.

Thus, the initial successes of the debate and basketball teams, the birth of sororities and fraternities, upheavals in student government and rowdy nights at the Othrys Hall dorm (now a part of Hope International University) all received acknowledgement in the news columns.

A long list of honors also began during these early years. The fall 1965 issues won the newspaper’s first major statewide award, a second place in general excellence from the California Newspaper Publishers Association in competition with dailies and weeklies.

The fall 1966 issues again won a second place, but in a new weekly category. The three-times weekly 1968-69 issues merited first place, this time in competition with the dailies.

Of course, future editors and reporters would have equally memorable experiences. But the pre-daily era, including the 1960 biweekly, the 1960-1965 weekly, the 1965-1968 twice-weekly and the 1968-69 three-times weekly, always will be highly valued by the hundreds of participating staff members.