Mayor Returns After Treatment for Alcoholism : Manhattan Beach: Connie Sieber, back in charge of the City Council, will attend meetings for recovering alcoholics three nights a week.

Manhattan Beach Mayor Connie Sieber was back in charge of the City Council Tuesday night, just three days after checking out of a monthlong alcohol dependency program in Santa Monica.

“It feels wonderful to be back, and I thought we had a very productive meeting,” Sieber said Wednesday. “I received a lot of letters and phone calls from people in the community. I really missed them.”

Sieber, 50, checked into the chemical dependency program at St. John’s Hospital on May 19. She entered the program one day after she surprised council members by accusing them of being “out of control” and not recognizing her authority during a council meeting.

Sieber, who later called an early recess and went home ill, said Wednesday that she was not intoxicated that evening. But, she said, she was struggling with her decision to enter a treatment program.

“I had too many things inside my head that night, and I guess I was short of patience,” Sieber said. “One of the things that does bother me is the little infighting that goes on in council in trying to change procedures. I was just impatient with the process.”

Council members welcomed Sieber back to the council.

“It was really good to have Connie back chairing the meeting,” Councilman Dan Stern said Wednesday. “Although it was a long agenda, we got out at a reasonable time because she cracked the whip for us.”

During her absence, the council adopted a $32-million spending plan that included higher fees for developers but spared the city’s highly regarded public arts program.

Sieber said she first realized she had a problem with alcohol about five months ago after honestly examining herself and her behavior. At social functions required of public officials, she said, her automatic reaction was to “get a glass of wine and start moving around the room and start chatting.”

“I don’t like to be out of control in any area of my life, and I just felt it was getting to that point,” she said.

Sieber said she will attend a program three nights a week for recovering alcoholics. She described her stay at St. John’s as “a very positive experience,” even though she had “little guilts about leaving the city with a (council) member short for that period of time.”

But she added, “What it basically comes down to is you have to deal with yourself first. I cannot be as helpful to others if I’m having some weakness.”