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Monrovia Tries to Clear Up Election Confusion
Community Feb 16, 2017
– File photo by Terry Miller / Beacon Media News
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-Courtesy photo by Yaquina (CC BY 2.0)
By Susan Motander
In his City Manager’s update this week, Oliver Chi noted that there might be some confusion over the sample ballots recently received by voters in the city as it does not mention the upcoming municipal elections. The information recently sent out by the registrar recorder is for the Special Los Angeles County election on March 7. The city elections will be held on April 11; that information will be sent later.
Chi explained in his report that in the first elections voters countywide were being asked whether or not to pass a LA Countywide quarter cent sales tax increase to raise around $355 million that will be controlled by LA County to fund homeless services. He also noted that in the update that in “the Special Countywide Election on March 7, 2017 election, you can drop off your Vote-By-Mail (VBM) ballot at Monrovia City Hall! Monrovia has signed up as a VBM drop-off location, which means that you will be able to drop off your VBM ballot at Monrovia City Hall anytime between February 6 – March 6.”
The Monrovia City Council voted at its last meeting not to take a position on this ballot proposition, despite objections by Council Member Alex Blackburn. At that time he said that he did not like voting for a tax increase without knowing exactly how the funds would be spent. The county has not outlined how the funds would be spent only that they would be used for homeless services, without delineating how or where the monies would be directed.
The next election will be the Municipal election, the information for which will be sent out shortly after the County-wide election. The Mayor, two council seats, the City Clerk and the City Treasurer are up for re-election. No one has filed against the City Clerk or City Treasurer. The Mayor has filed for re-election and is facing a challenge from newcomer, Mark Harris. Clifford DeCosta is running for City Council with both incumbents, Larry Spicer and Alexander Blackburn running for re-election.
Statements from all those running in contested campaigns have been solicited from the candidates and their replies will be published in this paper in early to mid-March.
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