Laguna Recall Group Believes It Has Enough Signatures for Election

Laguna Beach recall supporters Tuesday filed petitions that the city clerk said appeared to contain just barely enough signatures to force a ballot question on whether the mayor and two City Council members should be thrown out of office.

City Clerk Verna L. Rollinger said Tuesday evening that a preliminary check of the petitions found that each contained at least the minimum 2,997 signatures necessary for a recall. In a quick check of signatures that were accompanied by addresses, she tallied 3,114 signatures to unseat Councilwoman Lida Campbell Lenney, 3,161 against Councilman Robert F. Gentry and 3,247 against Mayor Dan Kenney.

However, the signatures must still be verified as belonging to Laguna Beach registered voters, a job the county registrar of voters is expected to begin after Rollinger turns them over today.

Action against the three officials was touched off in April when the council approved the city Design and Review Board’s ruling that merchants could not use displays of merchandise on sidewalks or other areas outside their places of business.

Joel Rasmusson, chairman of the Committee to Recall City Council, said recently that the council’s policies were “intrusive and meddling, anti-business” and “caused unreasonable restriction of property rights.”

Rex Brady, a spokesman for the recall group, said Tuesday night, “We feel confident we have 3,000 valid signatures.”

And Rasmusson said in a press release that “despite the initial deadline for the November election having been missed,” his group had been assured by Registrar Donald F. Tanney that the verification would be done quickly and that he hoped a recall could still be held in November.

In order to include the recall on the November ballot, Rasmusson said, the signatures would have to be validated within a week, and the City Council would have to adopt a resolution before Aug. 12.

Rollinger said it is “not totally impossible” that that could happen.

Otherwise, a special election would have to be set, costing taxpayers $25,000 to $30,000.

Councilwoman Lenney, a Democratic nominee for the November election in the 40th Congressional District, said Tuesday, “Frankly, I wish this (recall effort) had never happened, but I’m a believer in the democratic process, and if people feel their elected officials are not amenable,” they have a right to take action.

She added that she had “definite information that the recall people have gotten financing from development companies” to operate their campaign and that she wished that information on such donations “had to be made public as it is with politicians.”

Gentry said he was “not really ready” to comment until he knows the outcome of the signature-gathering efforts. He said the question of whether the council would adopt a resolution on the matter before Aug. 12 would “have to be discussed after verification of the recall signatures.”

Mayor Kenney was out of town on vacation.