TUSTIN : Court Clears Way for April 10 Election

A Superior Court ruling on Monday cleared the way for the April 10 City Council election.

“It’s very gratifying that we can move forward and allow people this precious right to elect the City Council,” said Councilwoman Ursula E. Kennedy, who has been fighting along with Mayor Richard B. Edgar to ensure that the election occurs.

Councilman John Kelly, an incumbent in the election, and Councilman Earl J. Prescott filed suit in March asking that the court overturn an ordinance moving the election from November to April. They alleged that former Councilman Ronald B. Hoesterey was not a legal resident when he voted for the ordinance on Nov. 20.

But Judge David H. Brickner found that Hoesterey was a legal resident and that his vote was valid. Brickner said that although Hoesterey had sold his home in Tustin, purchased a house in Orange and planned to stay with his mother-in-law until he resigned from the council, he was eligible to vote.

“The court finds beyond a reasonable doubt that he didn’t intend to abandon his domicile in Tustin, so he did not lose his domicile in Tustin,” Brickner said.

Brickner also ruled that City Clerk Mary E. Wynn had the power to set polling places and commission precinct workers after the council deadlocked on a vote to do that. Kelly and Prescott had challenged Wynn’s authority.

“We struck out,” Prescott said after the hearing.

“I’ve just got to start campaigning now,” Kelly said. “I’m going to go full steam ahead.”

“But even though they won in court today, it still doesn’t mean they’re right,” he said. “The honest people in town who’ve been following this know that an injustice was served, but the judge didn’t see it that way.”

Robert Owen, one of three attorneys who argued for the city, said, “I think it’s time that they take their medicine.”