Council Must Pay for Vote Even If Cityhood Voids It

The financially pinched Municipal Advisory Council will have to pay the county more than $9,000 for an election in November, even though the council may cease to exist as early as next March.

Because voters may decide in March that Diamond Bar should incorporate, council members say, the election for three seats on the council is unnecessary.

“You hate seeing $9,000 spent to have an election for someone who’s only going to be in office for three months,” said council Treasurer Dan Buffington.

The Municipal Advisory Council, a board which advises the county on issues involving Diamond Bar, has less than $200 in its treasury, Buffington said. It still owes the county $1,700 for its 1986 elections.

Council members had sought to have the Board of Supervisors extend the expiring terms of Chairman Cleve Holifield and colleagues Paul Horcher and Lavina Rowland until after the incorporation issue is decided.

Supervisor Pete Schabarum, who represents the area, turned down the request Thursday.

“Diamond Bar residents decided years ago that they wanted an elected Municipal Advisory Council, not one appointed by the Board of Supervisors,” Schabarum wrote in a letter to the council. “So I feel to extend the terms would circumvent the election process.”

Schabarum added that if he were to recommend the extension of a council member’s term, it might be construed as an endorsement of that person in a city council race that will be held when the incorporation issue appears on the ballot. Holifield and Horcher have said they intend to run for the city council.

Cityhood proponents had sought to have an incorporation measure on the ballot in November, a goal that became unattainable July 29, when six residents asked the Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO) to reconsider the boundaries included in Diamond Bar’s cityhood application.

Because of procedural delays caused by the request, a cityhood vote cannot be held before March, said LAFCO Executive Director Ruth Benell. The commission will consider the request at its meeting Wednesday, the day after the Board of Supervisors had been expected to place an incorporation measure on the ballot.

On Thursday, LAFCO received a second request to reconsider the boundaries, this one from Frank Arciero & Sons Inc., a development firm that has two projects pending within the proposed city, Benell said. The developer is seeking to have its project areas excluded from the city, a request LAFCO will also consider Wednesday.