LOCAL ELECTIONS / TUSTIN CITY COUNCIL : Anti-Incumbent Sentiment Could Decide Race

TUSTIN — In an election that threatened to test the local anti-incumbency fever, voters went to the polls Tuesday to decide whether three City Council members should be returned to office or be replaced by any of the three challengers.

With three of the five council seats up for grabs in the tightly contested race, early returns showed Councilman Jim Potts, 39, leading the pack. Business executive Jeffrey Thomas, 36, was closely behind in second place, and Thomas R. Saltarelli, 44, an attorney, was holding third place.

Councilman Earl J. Prescott, 39, was in fourth place, followed by 16-year Councilman Richard B. Edgar, 69. In last place was political newcomer Jeannie Jackson, 46, a secretary.

The Tustin council members serve four-year terms.

“Even though it’s been a low-key election campaign, it’s going to be an exciting election night because it’s too close to call,” Saltarelli said just before the polls closed.

Potts said he did not campaign as actively as he did two years ago when he was first elected to fill an unexpired term. “Everybody tells me I will get elected, but I have the same jitters as probably any candidate,” he said.

As he watched the returns from the council chambers, Edgar said he was “always hopeful,” adding that his poor showing early in the evening stemmed from votes being counted from areas of the city that are made up of apartment dwellers--voters whose support he did not expect to win.

With only 20% of the city’s 19,771 voters expected to show up at the polls, local political activists marveled at the absence of political acrimony that had accompanied previous local elections.

They also agreed that it would be a race to the finish because of the mixed bag of political endorsements issued before Tuesday’s election.

Potts and Thomas received the backing of a collection of homeowner associations known as the Tustin Residents Action Committee, and of the Tustin Voter Awareness Committee, which represents city employees. The residents’ group also endorsed Saltarelli, while the employees’ group backed Prescott.

Edgar, the only incumbent who did not win the support of either group, downplayed the effect on his reelection campaign and relied on his longtime record on the council to win voter approval.

But community activists said that Edgar seemed more vulnerable than the other two incumbents because of his strong support for the Eastern Transportation Corridor and other issues that angered homeowner groups who felt left out of the decision-making process.

“He’s a great man,” said TRAC member Todd Ferguson, “but people just think he’s not talking to us or even listening to us.”

Throughout the campaign, all the candidates were pressed on the issue of voter accountability and asked how City Hall would improve its communication with city residents.

Times correspondent Malaika Brown contributed to this report.

EDITION TIME ELECTION RETURNS

Tustin City Counci 3 Elected 47% Precincts Reporting Votes % Jim Potts 729 19.4 Jeffrey Thomas 702 18.7 Thomas R. Saltarelli 554 14.8 Earl J. Prescott* 543 14.5 Richard B. Edgar* 392 10.4 Jeannie Jackson 175 4.7 City Clerk Mary E. Wynn 658 17.5

Elected candidates are in bold type.

* Denotes incumbents