ORANGE COUNTY PERSPECTIVE : Next Problem

A court decision ordering a special election to fill a vacant Irvine City Council seat has had the effect of sending the candidates who were waiting in the wings scrambling to make 11th-hour pitches to voters. But it has done much more than that. It has made it crystal clear that the city needs a better plan than it now has for succession when council seats open up.

The most satisfactory resolution would be for the city to repair its flawed guidance for succession. The current election ordinance, known as Measure D, is confusing and needs changing. But the rival measure, E, resorts to unnecessary radical surgery by calling for the repeal of the direct election of mayors.

The background: The appeals court ordered a new election in Irvine after a messy one last spring. Mary Ann Gaido was the third-highest vote-getter on a ballot that had only two council slots open. That would have been the end of the story, until a third seat opened up when Councilwoman Sally Ann Sheridan was elected mayor. Gaido tried to assume that seat, and a court challenge ensued.

Measure E on the November ballot attempts to fix the ambiguity in Irvine’s succession law, but it would have been like tearing down a house to fix a leaky roof.

City Atty. John L. Fellows has subsequently said that if voters reject Measure E and thereby keep a directly elected mayor, he will suggest that the city fix the legal problems with the current ordinance. That, like the election of mayors by constituents, would be the direct and sensible route.