Municipal elections to be held in Monrovia April 9

Municipal elections to be held in Monrovia April 9
Council will conduct business with four members only until then
By Susan Motander

The Monrovia City Council held a special meeting Thursday evening, January 24 to discuss the resignation of Council Member Clarence Shaw and the possibility of cancelling the April 9 election. After tabling the issue of filling the vacancy on the council, and after hearing from a large number of members of the public, the Monrovia City Council voted to take no action on the option to appoint the nominees to office.
Shaw, who had been on active duty in the Army Reserves for more than a year, despite telling many people that he’d run for reelection, not only did not file his paperwork, but also resigned from the council the day after the filing period expired.
The comments about Shaw’s resignation were almost unanimous in expressing at minimum disappointment. Others were openly angry at the action. Several expressed appreciation for his service. In regard to appointing Larry Spicer who had been filling the seat on a temporary basis in the absence of Shaw, or anyone else, the comments were more varied.
Ultimately the council by general consensus agreed to table the matter until its March 5th regular meeting. Their action, in essence, allows the council to continue as it did prior to the appointment of Spicer and after the departure of Shaw to his military duty.
The discussion regarding whether or not to hold the scheduled election was lengthier. Since, if the election were to be held, all the positions on the ballot would be listed, City Clerk Alice Atkins and Mayor Mary Ann Lutz, excused themselves from the council chamber even before public input began. City Treasurer Steve Baker, although not usually a part of council deliberations, also left the room.
City Attorney Craig Steele gave the administrative report on the issue. He noted that since Council Member Joe Garcia had announced his retirement and that he would not file for reelection, the filing period was extended for five additional days as provided by statute. Since Shaw did not file for his own office, he could not file for it, but since Garcia had not filed, Shaw could file for that office, but did not. Since the statutory extension period had ended, the council had only two options according to Steele, either to cancel the election and appoint all the candidates who had qualified for the ballot to the positions for which they had been nominated or to hold the election.
Steele noted that in his twenty years of municipal legal experience this situation was not unusual. He told the three council members hearing the matter than they were required to make a decision that day if the election were to be cancelled as the election code required that the cancellation be made 75 days before the election date.
On this issue, public input was more varied, many called for an election to be held despite the fact that only the same number of candidates as offices existed in order to allow the public to write in candidates. A few even announced and implied that they were considering running a write-in campaign.
Others strongly recommended that the election be cancelled in order to save money. Most estimated that the cost of holding the election could be $50,000 or more. Several suggested that the funds could be better used in replaced the dangerous play equipment that had to be removed recently from Julian Fisher park.
Jules Bagnereis even asked that the filing period be reopened. The City Attorney had already explained that this was not an option for the council.
When the council began its discussion, Council Member Tom Adams acknowledged the cost of running the election in these financial difficult times, but said, “I have never considered elections to be costly. I consider elections to be priceless.”
Council Member Becky Shevlin described her thought process in debating the issue with herself. She announced that she too supported holding the election. She was much more direct in her challenge to the community saying: “The opportunity to vote is so precious, come on Monrovia, get off your butts.”
She added, “I hope that those who are going to participate, do it with some sort of integrity.”
Garcia, who as Mayor Pro Tem chaired the meeting in the absence of the mayor, thanked everyone who appeared and those who spoke to the issues before the council. He said called it “truly representative government.”
He also reviewed his thought process on the issue. He said that he supported holding the election even though the results would probably be the same as if the nominees were just appointed. He too noted the cost of the election, but said, “You cannot put a price on democracy.”
On motion of Adams, and seconded by Shevlin, the three council members able to vote, did so unanimously. The election will be held on April 9.

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