Central Park at Issue in Huntington Beach Race : Election: Growth and development are among the topics 14 candidates are discussing as the city nears a vote on three open council seats.

HUNTINGTON BEACH —  Growth and development are major issues as this sprawling coastal city heads into a City Council election featuring 14 candidates.

Proposed development of Central Park is among topics in the race.

Three of the seven seats on the council are to be filled, and only two incumbents, Councilman Don MacAllister and Mayor Jim Silva, are seeking reelection. A third incumbent, Councilman Peter M. Green, cannot run for reelection because city law prohibits more than two successive terms in office. All council members are elected at large.

Incumbents MacAllister and Silva are running on their records. They say the city of 180,000 has fared well during their past four years in office. Among things MacAllister and Silva point to are the newly rebuilt city pier and a redeveloping downtown core.

Critics, including an environmental trio running as a slate, charge that MacAllister and Silva have been pawns of big developers. These critics contend the two are part of a City Council majority that consistently votes pro-development.

MacAllister and Silva deny such charges. They say they vote on each proposal based on its merits. Silva notes he cast the decisive vote last year in a 4-3 City Council action that apparently killed the controversial Pierside Village project.

MacAllister also dismisses critics who accuse him of being excessively pro-development. “I’m for the economic health of our city,” he says. “Rather than being single issue, I feel I represent a broad base of all citizens.”

The trio of environmentally linked candidates are Mark Porter, Victor Leipzig and Dave Sullivan. Porter is a former planning commissioner; Leipzig is currently a planning commissioner and Sullivan is president of the slow-growth citizens’ group Huntington Beach Tomorrow. All three have been endorsed by Amigos de Bolsa Chica, Huntington Beach Tomorrow and the Committee of Four Hundred, a slow-growth citizens’ coalition.

“We feel the current council majority doesn’t pay attention to the concerns of citizens,” Sullivan said. “They get their campaign money from big developers, and that’s how they vote.”

On July 20, the council voted 4-2 for a plan that called for more intensive development of Central Park than had been recommended by a citizens’ advisory panel. MacAllister and Silva voted with the majority. Sullivan, Porter and Leipzig oppose that development plan and instead favor an option calling for more passive use of the park.

Opinions about park development vary among the other candidates. The 14 candidates also have an array of views about the Koll Company’s proposed construction of 4,884 new housing units on the Bolsa Chica Mesa.

Law enforcement is a sleeper issue so far, but it proved decisive in the council races two years ago when former Police Chief Earle Robitaille won a council seat.

Planning Commissioner Susan Newman, who has a master’s degree in criminology, is a council candidate in the current election and is emphasizing her endorsement by the Huntington Beach Police Officers Assn. “As a mother, public safety has always been my highest priority,” Newman says in her campaign literature.

The field of candidates includes two young college students, Brian McAneny, 22, and William Moore Thompson, 25. Other candidates on the city’s Nov. 3 ballot are George E. Arnold, Thomas W. Hyatt, Daniel A. Traxler, Bob Stuart, Scott A. Borzi and Vida L. Martin.

In addition to the council race, the Nov. 3 Huntington Beach ballot will have two candidates vying for the elected position of city clerk. Incumbent Connie Brockway, first elected in 1988, is seeking a second four-year term. She is being opposed by Mark Steven Miller, a Huntington Beach Fire Department administrative deputy who formerly held appointive city positions in Hayward, Calif., and in Corvallis, Ore.

Huntington Beach City Races

There are 14 candidates running at large for three seats on the Huntington Beach City Council and two vying for City Clerk in the Nov. 3 election.

George E. Arnold

Age: 61.

Occupation: Self-employed entrepreneur.

Background: Helped grass-roots fund-raising for the new pier. Has run for City Council several times and once ran for governor.

Issues: Opposes current city redevelopment plans as “too far out of hand”; thinks city should renegotiate city-worker contracts and reduce pay raises; opposes City Council’s current development plan for Central Park; says city should have a total of three police substations; opposes the Koll Co. plan for development of the Bolsa Chica Mesa.

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Scott A. Borzi

Age: 36.

Occupation: Pharmacist.

Background: A Huntington Beach resident since 1986, Borzi is making his first political race. He attended San Diego State University and the USC School of Pharmacy, graduating with a doctorate.

Issues: Favors current downtown redevelopment; says city pay-raise contracts should be honored, but if layoffs become necessary, employees should have the option of forgoing pay raises first; opposes current City Council plan for more development of Central Park; says more police substations are not needed; favors Koll Co. plan to develop Bolsa Chica Mesa.

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Victor Leipzig

Age: 44.

Occupation: College biology instructor.

Background: A member of the city Planning Commission since 1987. He is a board member of Amigos de Bolsa Chica and the Bolsa Chica Conservancy and has lived in the city since 1981.

Issues: Says “redevelopment should get in line with market forces,” which he says would reduce city subsidizing of redevelopment; opposes renegotiation of city pay-raise contracts; wants Central Park to be primarily for passive use but says a Youth Sports Complex can be worked into that plan; says more police substations are not needed; favors a public effort to buy Bolsa Chica Mesa to prevent private development.

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Don A. MacAllister

Age: 59.

Occupation: Incumbent; marketing executive.

Background: A former mayor, MacAllister served on the City Council from 1978 to 1986, and was elected to his current term in 1988. He was an elected trustee of the Huntington Beach Union High School District from 1976 to 1979.

Issues: Says no basic changes are needed in city’s redevelopment; opposes any effort to renegotiate city pay-raise contracts; supports the current development plan for Central Park; likes the existing police substations and says no new ones are needed; favors the development concept for the Bolsa Chica Mesa proposed by the Koll Co. but says “as to how many houses will be developed, it is too early to set numbers.”

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Brian R. McAneny

Age: 22.

Occupation: Student and community volunteer.

Background: A lifelong resident of Huntington Beach, McAneny is working toward a degree in political science at Cal State Long Beach. This is his first race for elective office.

Issues: Says downtown redevelopment has proceeded too fast and that city should ensure services are adequately provided; opposes any effort to renegotiate pay-raise contracts with police, firefighter or other city workers; opposes development plan for Central Park as too large; favors more police substations; opposes the size of the Koll Co. plan for Bolsa Chica Mesa because it is a wetlands.

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Susan D. Newman

Age: 49.

Occupation: Planning commissioner; criminologist.

Background: A member of the city Planning Commission since 1990, she has a master’s degree in criminology and teaches at police departments throughout Southern California.

Issues: Says the downtown redevelopment area between Lake and 6th along Pacific Coast Highway “should remain as ‘visitor-serving commercial’ to attract an expanded tax base; opposes any effort to renegotiate pay-raise contracts; favors the development plan for Central Park; says no more police substations are needed; declines comment on Koll Co. plan for development of Bolsa Chica because she must vote on pending environmental impact report

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Mark Porter

Age: 55.

Occupation: Technical sales manager.

Background: A former city planning commissioner, Porter narrowly lost a race for City Council in 1990. He was on the Planning Commission 1969-75 and 1980-86. He is an elected director of the Talbert Water District.

Issues: Says that too many “high-intensity” projects have been allowed in city redevelopment and that the city has subsidized “tens of millions of taxpayer dollars for redevelopment projects of questionable economic return”; opposes the development plan for Central Park; on subject of increased police substations, he says “we need a strategy that does not require a physical structure but a visible presence”; opposes the Koll Co. plan for development of the Bolsa Chica Mesa, saying some method should be found to preserve as much as possible of that area.

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Jim W. Silva

Age: 48.

Occupation: Incumbent; high school teacher.

Background: Currently completing his one-year term as mayor, Silva was first elected to the City Council in 1988. He was a member of the city Planning Commission 1987-88.

Issues: On redevelopment, says that the city “should only consider projects that clearly put the city in a strong financial position”; says it is unnecessary to renegotiate pay-raise contracts with city employees; favors the development plan for Central Park that he and others on the City Council majority approved earlier this summer; says no more police substations are needed; favors the coalition plan Koll Co. is using for development of Bolsa Chica Mesa.

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Dave A. Sullivan

Age: 55.

Occupation: Orthodontist.

Background: Currently president of Huntington Beach Tomorrow, he was a co-founder of Save Our Parks and co-author of the initiative, Measure C, that passed in 1990. He was a member of the Central Park Planning Task Force.

Issues: On redevelopment, says there should be “a defined repayment schedule of the $120 million owed to the city (treasury)” by the city Redevelopment Agency; favors renegotiating and lowering pay-raise contracts with city employees; opposes the Central Park development plan; as to the police substation issue, says the city “should develop a mobile substation capability so the police can set up where needed”; opposes Bolsa Chica Mesa development and supports a proposal for fewer houses in that area.

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Bob Stuart

Age: 39.

Occupation: Senior planner in private business.

Background: A resident of Huntington Beach since 1939, Stuart is making his first race for elective office.

Issues: On the redevelopment issue, says “an amusement park in the northern part of the city would bring in needed revenue and provide good activities for our kids”; favors “temporary pay cuts for all city employees”; opposes development plan for Central Park; says two new police substations should be considered, at Slater Avenue and Gothard Street and at Bolsa Avenue and Springdale Street; favors “with some reservations” the Koll Co. plan for Bolsa Chica Mesa.

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William Moore Thompson

Age: 25.

Occupation: Public relations director.

Background: Has a bachelor’s degree in English from UC Irvine and master’s degree in political science from American University. A resident of Huntington Beach for 24 years, he is making his first race for political office.

Issues: On redevelopment, says growth must not be at the expense of the people or the environment; opposes any effort to renegotiate pay-raise contracts with police, firefighters and other city employees; thinks the development plan for Central Park must “preserve the purpose and serenity” of the park; does not think any new police substations are needed; opposes the Koll Co. development because “it’s at the expense of the environment.”

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Daniel A. Traxler

Age: 44.

Occupation: Tax preparer.

Background: A resident of Huntington Beach since 1984, he is making his first race for public office.

Issues: Says he supports redevelopment but opposes any new development on the beach side of Pacific Coast Highway; opposes renegotiating pay-raise contracts except as a last resort; opposes development plan for Central Park as too vague; opposes more police substations because “that money would be better spent on additional police personnel”; says the current Koll Co. plan to develop the Bolsa Chica Mesa “is good, but I will be open to hear others on this issue.”

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Thomas W. Hyatt

Age: 47.

Occupation: Businessman.

Background: An Army veteran of the Vietnam War, he has lived in Huntington Beach since 1972.

Issues: Says city should help downtown redevelopment by joining merchants to provide “more festival and musical events”; favors existing police and firefighter pay-raise contracts but advocates a freeze on salaries of city upper management; favors some development of Central Park; favors around-the-clock police substations; opposes Koll Co. plan for the Bolsa Chica Mesa.

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Vida L. Martin. Did not respond to mailed questionnaire.

CITY CLERK

Connie Brockway

Age: 51.

Occupation: Incumbent.

Background: A deputy city clerk since 1968, Brockway was elected to the post in 1988 and is seeking a second four-year term. A resident of Huntington Beach for the past 25 years, she has served as a board member of the Huntington Valley Literacy Volunteers of America.

Issues: She says she is running on her record, which she says includes “knowledge of all the laws to carry out the Huntington Beach city charter and impartial service to the people who come into the city clerk’s office.”

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Mark Steven Miller

Age: 41.

Occupation: Administrative deputy.

Background: Currently an administrative deputy with the Huntington Beach Fire Department, Miller formerly was revenue manager for Hayward, Calif., from 1979-85 and financial and information services manager for Corvallis, Ore. in 1986. A resident of Huntington Beach the past four years, he holds a bachelor’s degree in political science and a master’s degree in public administration.

Issues: He says the city clerk’s office should use “current technology and automation.” He adds, “I feel I have more of the experience and management background to make the (city clerk’s) office a dynamic contribution to the city.”