GARDEN GROVE : Mayor May Yield Floor to His Wife

Mayor W.E. (Walt) Donovan’s wife, Diane, will try to keep alive a family tradition when she runs for the City Council in November. She’s taking out nomination papers just as her husband of 44 years makes his exit from the political scene after serving 16 years as either a city councilman or mayor.

Diane Donovan, 64, is the only woman in the field of 12 candidates. She could become only the second woman to serve on the City Council, following Kathryn Barr, who left office in 1974.

“I wasn’t thrilled with the candidates who are running, and besides, they have needed a woman on the council for a long time,” Donovan said Monday. “And this is supposed to be the Year of the Woman.”

“I didn’t talk to (Walt) about it. He probably would have tried to talk me out of it,” she said.

Her husband had a few good-natured words of warning.

“I hope she knows what she’s getting into,” a wary Walt Donovan said Monday with a chuckle. “I have encouraged her, and I’ll be her treasurer and help with her campaign.”

Donovan, who warned during recent budget discussions that the city is in danger of becoming “a damned slum” because his colleagues wouldn’t impose a utility tax, said he has “had enough” of public life for a while and will retire after completing his second consecutive two-year term as elected mayor.

Diane Donovan, who has never sought public office, has been president of the Garden Grove Boys Club and the women’s division of the Chamber of Commerce. She is the chairwoman of the Personnel Commission of the Garden Grove Unified School District and a past president of the California School Personnel Commission.

She retired in 1990 as an assistant vice president at Wells Fargo Bank in Santa Ana. She and her husband have lived in Garden Grove since 1954.

Donovan’s plunge into the council race hasn’t caused the only stir in the coming elections.

Four candidates--including incumbent council members Frank Kessler, Mark Leyes and J. Tilman Williams--have taken out papers to run for a two-year term as mayor. The council terms of Kessler and Williams, who has already filed his papers, expire in the fall.

Should he lose the mayoral race, Leyes could continue on the council for the two years remaining in his term. Al Snook is also running for mayor.

In addition to Diane Donovan, City Council candidates include Walter Wood Jr., Jim Golt, Raphael Margolin, Bruce Broadwater, Tom Petrosine, Bart Blakesley, Tony Ingegneri, Van Nguyen, former City Atty. Stuart B. Scudder.

Only Wood has officially filed his nomination papers. The deadline for candidates to file for office is Aug. 12.