Costa Mesa voters gave Councilman Jim Righeimer a split victory as they appeared to preserve his majority on the City Council, but soundly rejected Measure V, the city charter he crafted.

The council results were still uncertain Wednesday, though, as longtime councilman Gary Monahan, a Righeimer ally, was edging out challenger John Stephens by just 355 votes.

Hundreds of thousands of county ballots had not yet been counted, and activists from both sides spent the day monitoring ballots at the county Registrar of Voters office in Santa Ana.

Opposition candidate Sandy Genis and incumbent Steve Mensinger topped the eight-member field, and appeared certain to take two of the three open seats.

If he retains a three-member bloc, Righeimer can advance his plan to downsize city government. If the opposition gains power, council candidates said they would throttle back the city’s efforts to privatize public services and would be more conciliatory in negotiations with employee unions.

Without the charter, the council majority will have more difficulty outsourcing city services and cutting public employee compensation. Political observers are closely watching the results, as Costa Mesa has become a petri dish of conservative political reforms.

The election didn’t settle much within the city, said Fred Smoller, a professor of public administration at Brandman University, an affiliate of Chapman University. For almost two years, the council has fought organized labor and other opposition groups as it tried to push through reforms.

“Both sides will claim victory in any way they can,” Smoller said. “That means you’re going to have continued contentiousness.”

One clear signal was that voters opposed Measure V by a wide margin: 59 percent to 41 percent.

If the charter had passed, some elected officials in other Orange County cities said they would have considered a similar move to cut employee costs. Measure V would have given the council more flexibility to privatize public employee union positions such as street sweepers. Statewide and local labor unions poured in about $500,000 to defeat the measure.

“The residents of Costa Mesa took a resounding stand on Tuesday,” Orange County Employee Association spokeswoman Jennifer Muir said in an email.

Muir and others struck a conciliatory tone Wednesday.

“We truly hope this election marks the beginning of a new era of healing for Costa Mesa,” she said, “marked by respect and collaboration among Costa Mesa’s elected leaders, its residents and its employees.”

Top vote-getter Genis, who also served on the council from 1988 to 1996, said she would seek common ground with Righeimer and his allies.

“I look forward to working with whoever is on the council, and I hope that we can set aside our egos a little bit and think about the citizens of Costa Mesa first,” Genis said.

Righeimer vowed to retry with another charter proposal, on a future ballot. Next time, he will use a citizen’s committee to draft the document, he said – an approach also supported by Genis and other opposition leaders. One complaint during the campaign was that Righeimer designed the charter with minimal public input.

“It was loud and clear from the public that they want to be more involved,” Righeimer said Wednesday.

A charter is essentially a local constitution, and gives the council more control over municipal affairs. Measure V targeted employee unions’ influence by curbing their political fundraising and requiring voters to approve any employee pension increases.

Monahan was one of Righeimer’s most loyal votes on these attempted reforms. His political staying power has been proven time and again, but now hinges on uncounted ballots.

Monahan was first elected to the council in 1994 and has run multiple times since then. He stepped down as mayor in March after a tumultuous year. Soon after a maintenance worker jumped to his death from the roof of City Hall on St. Patrick’s Day 2011, Monahan was photographed in a kilt at his Irish pub, drawing criticism of callousness.

Monahan said he had stayed away from City Hall to avoid inflaming the situation.

Unless a local official is linked to a massive scandal, Smoller said, name recognition is a powerful force in local elections.

“People have a dearth of info,” Smoller said. “When you get down to local government, people go with what they know.”

The council had three open seats: Mensinger’s, Monahan’s, and Mayor Eric Bever’s. Bever was termed out.

Genis topped the eight-person field with 17.7 percent of the vote. She will join Councilwoman Wendy Leece, the lone dissenter on the council.

Contact the writer: 714-796-2254 or mreicher@ocregister.com