Ackerman-Norby History

The Orange County Register has an interesting story on the history of the Ackerman-Norby feud. It contains a new allegation by Dick Ackerman of sexual harassment by Norby.

The most interesting part of the story.

Ackerman says the two had a friendly beer at Elmer's after Norby won.
"I said, 'Hey, things are going to be good. We've got five conservatives.' But
the votes kept coming out 4-1," with Norby dissenting. While it didn't affect
the outcome, it did irk Ackerman, who believed Norby was pandering to the "vocal minority" that would come out to protest whatever issue happened to be on the
agenda on a given night."He'd just count the people in the audience and that's how he voted. He was the populist."

The other thing that turned off Ackerman, he says, is that on three occasions he was told by the city manager that a female city employee had complained about Norby's "touchings and inappropriate comments." No lawsuits were filed, Ackerman says, because "that's not the way things were handled then."

Instead, he says, the city manager told Norby to knock it off. The city manager has since died.

Of the two former council members I was able to reach, one, Buck Catlin, said he doesn't remember having an issue with Norby's voting habits or hearing about any sexual harassment.

The other council member, however, Linda LeQuire, said she remembers
both.

"His voting was not always consistent with what he said before the
public meeting," she said. On harassment: "There were several instances where
the council was apprised something had happened. … There were warnings to Chris not to do things … to curtail activities that might be seen as harassing in
nature."