County Leaders Urge Recall Reforms

Twenty current and former elected officials from Orange County cities presented a declaration Tuesday saying that there have been too many frivolous recall attempts recently in the county and that the California Legislature should consider restrictions on the recall process.

At the same time, members of the group said they were announcing their support for Supervisors Harriett M. Wieder and Thomas F. Riley, who are both targets of recall bids.

Ronald Shenkman, former Huntington Beach city councilman, said that he organized the event and that he was not acting at the direction of Wieder or Riley. He said the group believes that the recall process is being abused by small but vocal groups that have caused disproportionate problems for government.

Donn Hall, mayor of Costa Mesa, called it the “tyranny of the minority.”

Shenkman said, “The recall process was never intended to be used as a coercive instrument or as a political pawn deployed to influence the outcome of an election.”

Shenkman said the group was upset that Wieder was the subject of a recall at a time when she is a candidate for Congress on the June ballot.

So in their written declaration, signed by the 20 officials, the group asked the Legislature to prohibit the serving and filing of recall papers within 30 days of an election in which the recall target is a candidate.

The authors of the declaration include Santa Ana Mayor Dan Young, Orange Mayor Jess F. Perez, Newport Beach Mayor John C. Cox Jr. and Fountain Valley Mayor George B. Scott.