Their City Jobs Keep Them Apart--and Also Together

Politics brought Joyce and Lee Risner together, but it has also kept them apart since their marriage in 1969.

As the mayor of Seal Beach, Joyce Risner is required to live in that city by law, while Lee Risner has a personal commitment to live in La Habra, where he is city manager. As a result, the Risners see each other mostly on weekends.

It may not be the most conventional arrangement, but the couple believe that they have established a successful marriage. Joyce said her husband “is still the most exciting man in my life. Besides, I probably see him more now than I did when I lived in La Habra.”

‘A Weird Arrangement’

As for Lee, the separation is “kind of a weird arrangement, but I feel that it’s necessary to live here,” he said.

“It was an agreement I made when I was hired (by La Habra) that I would live here, so I would feel some necessity in keeping with that. . . . Our secret to living apart is to try to make the time we do have together quality time.”

The Risners met in the late 1960s, when Joyce was attending Seal Beach City Council meetings as a liaison from her women’s club and Lee was the city manager.

At the time, Joyce, a former teacher, was busy with community organizations and raising two children. She has been a resident of Seal Beach since she was a student at Cal State Long Beach. In 1982 she was elected to the City Council and this year became mayor.

Lee, meanwhile, has been a veteran of City Hall jobs, working as a city administrator in Southland cities for more than 30 years. He began in 1962 as an assistant to the Long Beach city manager. Subsequently he worked in Maywood and Seal Beach before moving to La Habra in 1970.

When the Risners were first married, Lee commuted to his La Habra job from Seal Beach. But soon the couple bought a house in La Habra because Lee believed strongly that a city manager should live in the community where he or she works.

The couple rented their Seal Beach home and moved to La Habra where they lived the next five years. Joyce said she enjoyed their new home but increasingly wanted to return to Seal Beach, the city she considered home.

“Everything I know and care about as far as community was here (Seal Beach),” she said. “So we decided to work something out.”

Pursue Separate Interests

The solution: Lee rented an apartment in La Habra and the rest of the family returned to the Seal Beach home.

How have the couple adjusted? Both said that living apart lets them pursue separate interests. “We both get what we want,” Lee said, “a feeling of doing something worthwhile.”

Like couples who are single and dating, the Risners reserve Friday nights for each other. But their paths sometimes cross during working hours as well. Besides her post on the City Council, Joyce has a seat on the Orange County Waste Management Commission, whose chairman is her husband, Lee.

The commission is an advisory board to the Orange County Board of Supervisors on solid-waste issues. Lee was appointed by the county division of the League of Cities, while Joyce was appointed by Supervisor Harriett Wieder.

“We’ve been known to have arguments on which way things should be done,” Lee said. “Neither one of us is shy about expressing our disagreements.”

During one disagreement, he recalled saying: “If Commissioner Risner could keep her mouth shut, she might learn something.”

“After that comment she stuck her tongue out at me,” he said.

Joyce added that her husband typically calls on her to speak at meetings of the 18-member commission after everyone else. As chairman, she said, “he goes overboard with trying to be fair.”

In addition to her commission and City Council work, Risner works part time for two federal agencies, the departments of Commerce and Labor, and also has a seat on the county’s Housing Commission.

When the two discuss city business, Lee said, he occasionally acts “as a bit of a mentor,” owing to his greater experience in municipal government. Joyce said that while she listens to her husband’s advice, she modifies it with her own opinions.

“We are very distinct and different people,” she noted. “We have been known to disagree.”

They do not believe that their employment with different cities poses a conflict of interest. If there is any conflict, Lee said, “it’s that both of us care a great deal about our respective communities. Though she and I have the last name, it doesn’t mean we will vote the same.”

Meanwhile, the couple continue to commute, a routine they said is no longer a strain after 12 years. With four children from their previous marriages now grown, the two have more time to see each other than ever before, Joyce said.

Besides, Lee added, “we’re usually just a phone call away from each other.”