Drive to Recall Farrell Fails; Foes Short by 2,600 Names

An effort to force Los Angeles City Councilman Robert Farrell into the second recall vote of his political career failed Wednesday by more than 2,600 valid signatures, election officials announced.

An ebullient and sometimes defiant Farrell, surrounded by the clergymen who formed the core of his support, told reporters that the results of the recall move “should make it clear to reasonable people that the issue of who sits on the City Council representing the 8th District has been resolved and that representative is Robert Farrell.”

Farrell, 50, said one lesson he learned from the experience is to “try my very, very best to have no Judases around me.”

Among other things, Farrell’s opponents had charged that the veteran councilman was unresponsive to chronic community problems, particularly the gang violence and drug trafficking that has become the subject of nationwide attention. Noting that businesses had fled the economically depressed and crime-ridden district, recall organizers tried to convince longtime residents that they could expect a better delivery of city services with new leadership.

Recall leader Kerman Maddox expressed shock that the signatures fell short and vowed to formally challenge the count. A former aide to Mayor Tom Bradley, Maddox said, “This is the greatest heist since the Great Train Robbery.”

With 12,579 valid signatures needed to force Farrell into a special recall election, City Clerk Elias Martinez reported that only 9,917 of the 16,545 petition signers were actually registered to vote in Farrell’s South-Central Los Angeles district.

To stymie signature gatherers, Farrell supporters had gathered more than 12,423 cards from people who said they had signed the recall petition but had changed their minds. But most of the card-signers, in fact, had not signed the petition. Martinez said the cards made little difference in the final count, invalidating only 268 petition signatures.

Election officials said that proponents have 30 days to challenge the signature count. If a further tally does not change the outcome, the recall backers may file a lawsuit.

Farrell has represented the South-Central Los Angeles district since 1974, when he won a special election to fill the unexpired term of Billy Mills, now a Los Angeles Superior Court judge. Reelected in 1975, 1979, 1983 and last year, Farrell also beat back a recall effort in 1978.

Maddox and other recall proponents believed that Farrell was particularly vulnerable to removal this time after he barely escaped a runoff in last year’s municipal elections. Farrell lost heavy support last year after first proposing and then opposing a city ballot initiative that would have imposed a special tax on area residents for additional police officers.

Recall proponents had also argued that the councilman should be ousted because of several votes in which Farrell participated that steered tens of thousands of dollars in grants to an 8th District agency headed by Farrell’s former wife. Farrell has denied any wrongdoing.

Maddox had to junk nearly 4,000 signatures gathered late last year after it was revealed that a sponsor of the recall lived outside Farrell’s district. Maddox started a new petition drive in January.

The Rev. Frank Higgins, who heads a coalition of Baptist ministers who support Farrell, called for a “time of healing” and said the recall effort was “divisive” and has served “no good purpose.”

Another Farrell supporter, the Rev. Joe B. Hardwick, said, “Thank God, the 8th District is not for sale.”