Note: The following article was written by Jim Drummond and published in the Feb. 9, 1972, edition of the Buena Park News, a twice-weekly community newspaper published by the West Orange Publishing Corporation, a division of the Knight-Ridder newspaper chain. West Orange Publishing also included the former daily Orange County Evening News, with Garden Grove, Westminster and Huntington Beach editions; the twice-weeklies Huntington Beach Independent and La Mirada Lamplighter; and the weekly Anaheim-Fullerton Independent. Drummond served as an editor, reporter, photographer and columnist for the newspapers 1966-1979, part-time during the school year and full-time during the summer breaks from his teaching post at Valencia High School in the then-named Placentia Unified School District, now the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District in Orange County, Southern California. The story began on page one and jumped to page two in the middle of the 13th paragraph (after the word "resignations").
B.P. ... Youngster with Wild Political Past
by Jim Drummond
For a relatively young city -- 19 years of age last January -- Buena Park has had its share of controversy and lively city council elections.
Balloting this April will be the 15th as the city moves into its 20th year. That includes the incorporation election in January of 1953, nine regularly scheduled elections, two recalls, a special election to replace recalled councilman and a special vote on the old "public safety" concept (a combination fire and police department).
All of the elections have drawn a large field of candidates -- from 19 seeking five council spots in 1953 to 12 after three positions open this April 11. Voters in 1970 selected two councilmen from a field of 11 candidates.
The largest field of candidates in Buena Park's history was in the first 1953 election held in January. Elected that first time were Grady Travis (who became the first mayor), Garner McComber, Tom Stelzner, Calvin Culp and Joe Webber.
All five terms were up 15 months later in the April 1954 elections. McComber and Webber were re-elected to four-year terms, with Travis and Stelzner receiving two-year terms. Wayne Hart got a two-year term, turning out Culp, who was among eight losers in a total of 12 candidates.
Stelzner resigned in February of 1956, three months before the next election as political doings in the city began to heat up. He was replaced by William Peak, who was the lone incumbent seeking election in April 1956, with Travis and Hart not running.
A total of 11 candidates sought three positions that year, with Peak, Paul Wishek and Dennis Murphy taking seats along with holdovers McComber and Webber. These five were to become one of the liveliest councils in city history.
Issues concerned the city's public safety concept (since incorporation the city fire and police departments were merged into one public safety department) and a revolving door in the city manager's office.
Webber resigned in August of 1956, four months after the election. He was replaced with Travis, who was on the first council. Travis was again elected mayor by his fellow councilmen when McComber resigned.
Before resigning as mayor (he remained on the council), McComber asked fellow councilman Murphy "to step outside"during one stormy council session. Wishek resigned a month later in September of 1956 and was replaced by Fred Harber.
At the time a city manager resigned and there were suggestions that other high city officials also resign in a continuing debate over city policies. In a special election held in November of 1956, the public safety concept was defeated, leading to the separation of the fire and police departments.
Two seats were up in the 1958 election, and the winners, John Stecko and Bill Effinger, both would be recalled from office 18 months later. They joined Murphy to form a solid three-man voting block. Defeated in the election was Travis, with McComber deciding not to enter the fray. Murphy, of course, became the new mayor. (Peak and Harber were the other councilmen.)
The next few years were to see two recall elections, several council changes through recalls and resignations and the emergence of Robert A. Thompson, Harold R. Bousman and Jesse Davis on the political scene.
In September of 1959, Peak died. Fred Shea was appointed to take his place. Next month, Effinger and Stecko were recalled from office. However, Effinger, who became mayor after Murphy, resigned before the actual voting. Two months later a special election was held to fill the two vacant spots, and Thompson and Fred DeCamp won. Harber became the new mayor.
The election was preceded by turmoil in the top city positions. City Manager Philip Storm, who had replaced an earlier manager, was ousted from office and replaced by Ken Morrison. At about the same time, Bud Yaberg became city engineer and Bill Verbeck took his post as fire chief on a one-year probation.
Two candidates who were defeated in the 1959 recall election, Bousman and John McShane, a popular radio disc jockey, finally did make it to the council in April of 1960. Fifteen candidates were seeking three positions, and voters turned out incumbents Harber and Shea and elected Bousman, McShane and John Parise.
In a rare burst of unanimity, the new post-election council named Thompson as mayor and Parise as mayor pro-tem. Other holdover councilman was DeCamp. In Bousman's first successful election try, he was put over by a committee led by the late James D. Hicks, with Jesse Davis as a member.
Things really changed in the city after the election. Murphy, seeing his political mates recalled earlier, had declined to run. Right after the election the city manager forced six of the top ranking police officers to resign. The officers charged political influence from DeCamp.
Also fired was the entire planning commission in a 3 to 2 vote. One of the new commissioners would be Jesse Davis.
City Manager Morrison was given a vote of confidence, and he later fired the police chief, Wilford Sparkes. Sparkes was later replaced by Ralph Selby and Morrison himself by Assistant City Manager S. Vincent Erdelyi, after Bousman indicated he would keep after him.
By January of 1961 there were two recall movements in the wind. The apparent team of Thompson, Parise and DeCamp were the target of one with Bousman and McShane the target of the other. Although the recall against Bousman and McShane was later dropped, they both supported the recall of the council majority and signed petitions to that effect.
The recall, tied up in court action, finally took place in August of 1961. Thompson kept his seat from two challengers (one was a neighbor of McShane), but Parise was replaced by Richard Crenshaw and DeCamp by former councilman Paul Wishek who won by two votes.
At the first meeting of the council after the election, Wishek moved to strip Thompson of the mayorship, but Bousman voted no. Bousman later abstained on the motion to make McShane mayor.
In the 1962 election, incumbents Thompson and Wishek were re-elected. Among the unsuccessful candidates were Davis and Shea, a former councilman. In June, McShane lost a bid in the primary for the Republican nomination for a new Congressional seat.
The 1964 election saw Bousman, Crenshaw and McShane running for re-election. Two of the other eight candidates were Davis and Parise, both supported by Thompson. During the campaign, Bousman asked for "new blood" on the council and he got it in the form of Davis who turned out McShane. Bousman, who noted during the campaign the public found it difficult to attend the 4 p.m. council sessions when "the money was spent," and Crenshaw were both re-elected. Holdover councilman Wishek became mayor and Thompson mayor pro-tem.
Crenshaw died after a lengthly illness in July of 1965 and was replaced by local attorney Gordon P. Wing in August.
In 1966 Thompson was re-elected and joined by Anthony N. Fonte, a local attorney. Wishek had declined to seek re-election in a field that saw 15 competing for the two positions.
Davis, Bousman and Wing were all re-elected in a heated 1968 campaign that saw Ralph Selby, forced to resigned as police chief in a controversy still not publicly explained, came within 25 votes of toppling Wing. Another candidate that year was Ralph Hines.
Hines finally made it in 1970, topping an 11-man field seeking two posts with 1,905 votes. Fonte was re-elected with 1,715 votes and Thompson came in a losing third with 1,535 votes. Also in the election was Hans P. Gowa, who garnered 921 votes.
The 1972 election is already shaping up. There are 12 candidates seeking three positions, and all of the incumbents are in the battle for another term.
Should Bousman be re-elected, it would be his fourth term and the beginning of his 13th year on the council, the longest term in city history.
Davis is vying for his third term and Merwin French Jr. his first elected term. French was appointed to the council after the resignation of the ailing Wing (since deceased).
Two of the other candidates in the current election have sought office before. Both Hans P. Gowa and Kenneth Atkinson was defeated in 1970.
Seeking office for the first time are Mrs. Donna P. Bagley, Stanley F. Meyer, Hermon I. Jenkins Jr., Adrian C. Witt Jr., George S. Brown, arold E.Young and George A. Tolbert.
Tolbert, a 19-year-old Cypress College student, is the youngest person to seek a council seat in city history. He graduated from Buena Park High School in 1970.
Note: Winners were Bousman, Davis and Meyer.
