The La Quinta dogfight in Millbrae described a year ago here that pits the city against the county over tax revenue and homeless housing has given us an unintended view of the future. The move to district elections at the city level was clearly voter suppression–taking away 80% of any individual's votes for city council and creating tiny little districts supposedly to improve "equity". Couple the two issues together and we now see that recalling elected officials gets easier. One hot-button issue can spin up enough people in one (or in this case two) tiny districts easily enough to qualify for a recall election.
I will skip the personalities involved, but the Daily Journal piece also shows the cost of these efforts at municipal self-determination and running special elections:
Millbrae is also embroiled in ongoing litigation against the county for choosing to move forward with the project — which the county intends to fund through still in-flux Project Homekey money, as it has done at several other locations throughout the county. The lawsuit, which has cost the city $230,000 as of May, City Manager Tom Williams said previously, alleges that Millbrae residents have a right to vote on whether they want the housing project in their community under Article 34 of the state Constitution.
(Councilmember) Cahalan said she’d wait to see the results of the lawsuit — which the presiding judge said would be returned by June 26 — before commenting further on the project.
And on the cost front:
The special election will cost the city approximately $143,000. The councilmember will be recalled if more than 50% of the votes are in favor. Once they are removed, the positions will be vacant until it is filled by appointment or an election to the unexpired terms.
While that sounds like a lot of money, remember Millbrae would stand to lose $750,000 every year in perpetuity from the lost hotel tax. One wonders if the Malibu attorney behind the move to tiny little districts had this in mind?
Leave a Reply