Disqualification Ends Council Race

What began as a dull campaign has evolved into no contest at all after local officials this week canceled what would have been the first election since the Crescenta Valley Town Council was formed.

One of two candidates competing for the council’s only contested seat has been disqualified, leading the council president this week to declare the sole candidates for the three open seats as automatic winners. “There will not be an election,” said council President Thomas M. Johnston.

“Personally, I was looking forward to an election to demonstrate community support for the council,” said Johnston, who has served as president since the council formed last March. “I feel like a radio disc jockey: You know you’re talking but you don’t know if anyone out there is listening.”

There were six seats up for election: one with a two-year term in each of the council’s three districts, and one non-voting, one-year alternate position in each district. No candidates filed for the three non-voting seats. Johnston said the empty positions on the 12-member council will be filled by appointment after new council officers are seated in April.

Council members Judy Tejeda and Bill Beavers are not being challenged in their reelection bids. Johnston last week declared them the winners and canceled the election in their districts.

The incumbent in the third district, Councilman Anthony P. Hurtado, is not seeking reelection. Two newcomers, Robert E. Yanez and Marjorie R. Koerber, had filed for that seat.

After the two competitors appeared at three public forums, Koerber said, she learned late Thursday that she lives outside the unincorporated county territory the council represents.

Koerber, an office manager who has lived in the area for 21 years, said, “I never thought of my home as other than La Crescenta,” which is the mailing address she uses.

However, her home in the 2900 block of Piedmont Avenue is three blocks inside the northeastern boundary of Glendale. She said officials of the Town Council and Chamber of Commerce failed to notice the discrepancy when she filed as a candidate.

“If the council didn’t know it and the chamber didn’t know it, how was I supposed to know it?” she said.

Koerber said the error was discovered by Councilman Don Hogue after she gave Hogue directions to her home.