Anaheim school election is sought

Although a controversial Anaheim school board appointee resigned last week, community furor over the vacant trustee post continues.

The anti-Harald Martin coalition is trying to force an election to fill the post rather than allowing the board to make another appointment.

Martin’s appointment in July spurred an unusual coalition of liberals and conservatives to gather signatures to force the district to rescind the appointment and hold a special election to fill the post, as permitted under state law. They gathered about 5,000 signatures, which the registrar of voters was in the process of verifying when Martin resigned last week.

The day after the resignation, the county Department of Education told the registrar to stop counting signatures because the issue was moot.

The anti-Martin forces plan to argue in court today that the signature count should continue.

Martin’s resignation “is irrelevant,” said Mark Rosen, the attorney representing petition gatherers. “It’s all about the right to have an election.”

The Anaheim Union High School District board appointed Martin to fill the position left vacant upon the death of trustee Denise Mansfield-Reinking. Martin is seen as a polarizing figure. Voters tossed him off the school board in 2002 after, among other things, he proposed billing Mexico for educating illegal immigrants. The retired police officer ran for the school board in November and came in seventh out of eight candidates.

The Department of Education’s attorney defended the decision to halt the signature count.

It’s now up to the district to decide whether to appoint a trustee or call an election, Ronald Wenkart said. He said the board planned to discuss the matter at its Sept. 13 meeting.

But Rosen on Tuesday filed a petition with the court seeking an order requiring that the signature verification continue. If enough signatures are deemed valid, a special election must be called, he said.

seema.mehta@latimes.com