December 06, 2005

"Council derails recall attempt"

"The City Council on Monday killed a recall challenge against two of its members, but said it would seek a judge's opinion within 21 days as to whether the petition to put the issue on the ballot should have been multilingual.

The meeting was contentious, starting with a protest outside of Rosemead City Hall and spilling into the council chambers. At times during the night, audience members of opposing views nearly came to blows.

After several hours of debate, the council voted 3-2 to kill the recall.

Those in favor included the two council members in question, Rosemead Mayor Jay Imperial and Councilman Gary Taylor, along with Councilwoman Margaret Clark.

A judge's review would reduce claims of liability against the city that the petition was unfair to minorities, Clark said.

Imperial and Taylor were made targets of the recall largely for their votes in favor of a Wal-Mart Supercenter planned for 24 acres on Walnut Grove Avenue at Rush Street.

Clark moved to have a judge look at a Nov. 23 ruling by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals that a Santa Ana school board recall election was invalid because the recall petition was circulated only in English.

The recall petition circulated in Rosemead earlier this year was written only in English, according to the city attorney. Petitioners gathered enough signatures to qualify for a recall election that was scheduled to be held Feb. 7.

In a surprise appearance, Nativo Lopez, the target of that Santa Ana recall campaign, addressed the City Council and accused Imperial and Taylor of manipulating the court ruling for their gain.

Lopez said the court's ruling vindicated his allegation the petition against him was largely fraudulent and he said it was ironic Imperial and Taylor would use it to overturn the will of Rosemead voters.

"Let the will of the people be done," Lopez said. "Proceed with the recall election."

A federal consent decree in July found Rosemead violated the Voting Rights Act in the March 2005 elections because, based on its demographics, the city didn't provide adequate information to voters in Chinese, Spanish or Vietnamese. The decree requires all election materials and related election information be written in those languages, in addition to English".

Posted by Randy Riddle at December 6, 2005 09:01 AM