Recall Leaves Voters Vindicated, the Unseated Unsettled

“T here is a secret in building a town. Do you want to know what it is? It takes a stiff backbone, a spirit of progressiveness and determination to win out, and a disposition that can stand all sorts of criticism.”

That analysis was uttered by none other than George Amerige, who, along with his brother, Edward, founded Fullerton in 1887. Is there any way we can reach George Amerige today to get his take on Tuesday’s blockbuster recall election, in which three-fifths of his hometown’s City Council was voted into oblivion?

Probably not. So, for our limited purposes today, we’re left with the opposing views of a longtime Fullerton resident I found sitting in a barbershop and newly dumped Councilwoman Molly McClanahan.

Never has the expression “staggered term” taken on such literal meaning. McClanahan and Councilmen A.B. (Buck) Catlin and Don Bankhead have been staggered, all right. They’re now reeling about the ring, wondering what hit them.

McClanahan was back at work Thursday at the Anaheim YWCA, where she runs a youth employment service. She was feeling, well, staggered.

I wondered what it felt like to be ditched so abruptly.

“There is definitely a personal dimension and a public dimension,” she said of the recall. “It’s like a death. It’s like a numbness and then grief. It’s because you feel like you cared and nurtured not just a city but the citizens in that community. You’ve been a guest in schools, done guest lectures--I go wherever I’m invited. If I’m invited to a group of homeowners, I go there. I relish the invitations. I never turned down an invitation to a school, because I think young people are so very important and vital to democracy.”

McClanahan thought she knew her town. Elected in 1982, she had met hundreds of citizens, either as volunteers or candidates or appointees to various local boards and commissions. But the group that led the recall effort seemed to come out of nowhere after the council passed a stopgap 2% utility tax last year that it said was needed to shore up the city’s finances.

What made Tuesday’s recall so shocking was that Orange County voters have threatened officeholders repeatedly in recent years without success. In the last few years, Orange County citizens have tried about 20 times to recall members of either city councils or school boards and have come up with a big, fat zero. The last successful attempt was in 1989, when Fountain Valley residents recalled their mayor, who went too far in drumming up local business and pleaded no contest to soliciting a prostitute.

“You look at yourself as being a leader,” McClanahan said, talking about herself and her comrades. “You’re a listener, but you’re also a leader and you make decisions--some are popular and some are not, but you try to look at the well-being of the city and the overall public interest.”

She knew she lived in a conservative town. Fullerton, after all, is Bill Dannemeyer’s stomping grounds. It is not a city that suffers taxes gladly. So she knew the tax wasn’t popular, but what still had McClanahan shaken Thursday was the tone of the recall effort.

“The morning after the election, I had a call from an anonymous male who said, ‘You’re fired, and I’m glad.’ It’s that kind of callousness and viciousness that hurts. The flyers the recall group distributed said, ‘Throw the snakes out of Fullerton.’ It’s that kind of thing that’s painful, because you cared over a host of issues, not just the one they’re recalling you for.”

If McClanahan is in pain, what about the other side? Are they gloating?

I ran into one Thursday morning in a local barbershop. He has lived in Fullerton for more than 40 years and, now retired, has worked there for 30.

I asked him about the recall.

“You know what happened,” he said.

I told him I knew what happened; I wanted to know why .

“This recall won because the council wouldn’t recognize the citizens that voted against that 2% tax,” he said. “There was over 600 people down there (at a public meeting), and our mayor (Catlin) and the council just ignored their vote on it. All the citizens had a standing vote, and they ignored it.”

It wasn’t just the tax, he said: “It amounts to about $54 a year. It wasn’t an awful amount, but it was the way we were treated. It was like they were saying, ‘There’s no use in you coming down here at all.’ ”

I asked if he was gloating over the results.

“It’s just a lesson to pass on to the city officials,” he said. “That we do amount to something other than just being a person. Our votes will count.”

I asked his name, but he didn’t want to give it. He concluded by saying, “You can find out a lot of things in a barbershop.”

Dana Parsons’ column appears Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Readers may reach Parsons by writing to him at The Times Orange County Edition, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, Calif. 92626, or calling (714) 966-7821.