“They don’t want too many Asians on the city council,” Liao says
Saying he was the victim of a political trick, San Gabriel City Council Member-elect Chin Ho Liao has filed a lawsuit in California Superior Court demanding that he be seated after finishing in the top three spots in the March 5 municipal election.
“It’s obvious,” Liao said. “I don’t want to say that, but it’s obvious. They don’t want too many Asians on the city council. They want to control … They want to kick me out and appoint another person who lost in this election. It’s not normal. It’s based on one letter of complaint.”
The city council voted at its March 26 meeting not to seat Liao after one resident wrote a letter claiming Liao does not live in San Gabriel.
“It’s not smart,” he said in a telephone interview. “They’ve come up with this outrageous idea. This can become an example for other cities’ elections. Anyone can send a letter and complain and (stop the procedure). Can you imagine what kind of mess than will be?”
Answering the question alleged from the complaint, Liao answered, “Of course I do live in the city.
“I don’t have any problems,” he continued. “The (city clerk’s office) has to qualify me before I pull the papers. That’s not an issue. The city has to qualify me and so does the county. It took them two to three weeks of time to check everything out. They already qualified me.”
In addition, Liao said the city is breaking the law by not installing him.
“By California election code, they have to certify all the ballots and install the elected city council members,” he said. “It’s against the law. They have to do it by the fourth Friday after the election. They already missed the deadline.”
Liao added the city is acting like the judiciary, which is something it should not do.
“We’re asking for a writ of demand to install me,” he said. “It’s their job. Let the court tell them to do it.”
Liao also said he does not know why one letter of allegations from a resident should subvert the election.
“Based on one resident’s letter you cannot stop the procedures the city is supposed to do,” he said. “In a way it is stupid.”
He added the city is wasting a lot of taxpayer money in investigating this.
“They hired a very expensive law firm to come up with this idea,” Liao said. “You can’t do that. It’s a violation of the will of the voters and 1,714 voters decided to vote for me. It’s not just about me now. (The voters) think their democratic votes are canceled by this action.”
-Exclusive story by Shel Segal and photo by Terry Miller