TenSeven days ago, Orange County residents went to the polls to select their elected officials and decide several ballot initiatives. For most, the campaign ended on Tuesday. For some, the nail-biting continues into a second week.
In the north county 65th Assembly seat Chris Norby is fighting for his political survival as Fullerton Mayor Sharon Quirk-Silva has maintained, and expanded, her election night lead. With 14,824 votes left to count, Quirk-Silva has expanded her lead to 2,222 votes.
In the newly drawn Rancho Santiago Community College District Area 5 race, Santa Ana Councilwoman Claudia Alvarez has slightly expanded her lead over incumbent Trustee Mark McLoughlin to 251 votes. There are 2,567 ballots left to count in this race. Fellow Trustee David Chapel is trailing his two opponents in the same race with 3,734 votes.
In Costa Mesa, it looks like our favorite Leprechaun Mayor is hoping to find a pot of gold in the remaining 4,482 ballots left to count. At least enough gold to stave off the challenge from challenger John Stephens. If Monahan does not prevail, the city ‘s flawed attempt to contract out city jobs in violation of state law will grind to a halt and the expensive appeal of orders and judgments that say the city is breaking the law will continue unabated. As the vote count stands Monahan holds a slim 110 vote lead over Stephens; 12,834 to 12,724.
In Fullerton, a similarly close contest between Travis Keiger, who won his seat during the recent recall campaign, and Jan Flory. With 4,239 votes remaining to be counted, Keiger is hanging on to his brief political career by 112 votes, 12,097 to 11,985.
In Westminster, Councilman Tyler Diep is still waiting for the usual Vietnamese surge to rescue his political career on the Westminster City Council. With 3,545 ballots remaining to be counted, Diep is trailing challenger Diana Carey by 696 votes, 8,369 to 7,693. We note that Democrat Sergio Contreras appears to be the top vote-getter in Westminster with 10,717 votes in the bank. Contreras will be replaced on the Westminster School Board by Jamison Power, a fellow democrat, and top coming in second with 10,291 votes.
So there will be a few candidates with their eyes glued to their computer screens, incessantly refreshing their browsers, around 5 p.m. looking for the latest results from the Registrar of Voters.
I read Lauren Williams’ November 7 article “Measure V trailing in early returns” and was struck by Mayor Pro Tem Righeimer’s comment that “I think through this whole process we heard the community loud and clear.” “The community wants more of a committee-type process.” “And that’s what I’ll be bringing forward to get the community (involved in the writing) of the charter and to make sure any of the concerns and safeguards are put in the charter to make the public feel comfortable.”
The desire for an elected charter committee (community involvement) to write the charter was expressed in public comments when the charter was first proposed by Righeimer and at nearly every city council meeting thereafter. But now, since his proposed charter was voted down, Righeimer says that he hears the community loud and clear. It should not require an election to communicate with him. If that is the case, we will need an election every month.
There are a few other points worth noting. Righeimer told us that he was opposed to using a charter committee to write the charter because it would take too long. So he rushed through a flawed charter that was defeated and it may now take another year or more to clean up the mess. Haste makes waste.
Righeimer also said, authoritatively, that an elected charter committee wasn’t needed because he hadn’t found any other city that used a committee to write their charter. He frequently referenced Newport Beach’s charter but evidently didn’t read their charter history. If he had, he would have known that they used an elected charter committee to write their charter. Can we trust what Righeimer says to us in his authoritative way, particularly when we now suspect that he never really studied this issue in any detail?
There are some other issues of trust. Remember that he tried to rush the first even more flawed charter onto the June primary election ballot. This strategy has been used by others before because the voter turnout is usually lower and this can be used to gain an advantage for getting Measures (charters) passed. He might try this strategy again in 2014.
Also, he tried to force the current proposed charter onto the citizens of Costa Mesa that, by his own admission now, does not have detailed safeguards for the city residents. Can we trust a person that knowingly tried to push through a charter with such a flaw?
I am glad to hear that he is now considering a charter committee, and it should be an elected committee; but, I am still not convinced we need a charter. However, if we do, we need someone other than Mayor Pro Tem Righeimer to lead the effort. We need a different leader because of his deafness to residents, hasty actions, questionable credibility and trustworthiness, and his repeated oversight of details. I suggest that Councilwoman Leece and past Mayor and now new Councilwoman Genis be considered to lead the restart of the charter effort.
Chris-
By my count it’s been almost a week since last Tuesday. 6.5 days since polls closed. Maybe it just feels like 10 days…
Maybe Norby can replace Sharon in the classroom. He used to be a teacher, right?
Anyone else notice that every candidate who advertised on Pedroza’s site lost except for Pulido. Is Miguelito sending Art’s check directly to you guys? Has he paid anything yet?
Flory seems to be closing in. She trails Kiger by 56 votes with about 2,300 left to count.
We’ve heard there was a delay in reporting the results due to a bad data card and the FFFF observersc went nuts claiming a conspiracy and demanded to watch the machine be repaired
Were any black helicopters seen hovering overhead? If it stays this close, I’m sure the side on the losing end would ask for a recount.
Lots of tin foil beneath wool caps I’m sure