COUNTYWIDE : Recall Effort Against Ely Misses Ballot

Leaders of an effort to recall Tom Ely, a trustee of the Ventura County Community College District, have failed to obtain the required number of signatures to put the issue on the November ballot, county officials said Thursday.

The Simi Valley citizens group still has until Oct. 25 to gather the signatures required for the College Board of Trustees to call a special election in early 1991 to oust Ely, whose financial troubles were the impetus for the month-old recall campaign.

So far the group has collected about 1,500 signatures, far short of the 9,900 signatures that they needed to collect by today to make the November election, said officials with the Elections Division of the county clerk’s office. The 9,900 signatures represent 15% of the 66,521 registered voters in the 4th District, which includes Simi Valley and Moorpark.

“Our volunteers couldn’t go all out because they were held up on the current elections,” said Barbara Liberman, one of the leaders of the recall group. “It isn’t the end of the world. We still have enough time to get the signatures for a special election.”

Meanwhile, officials of the Ventura County district attorney’s office said Thursday that they are continuing their investigation of Ely for possible misappropriation of thousands of dollars in district funds.

An audit of Ely’s financial records in March concluded that he charged $8,422 in questionable expenses on business trips he took during the past three years.

The audit listed another $6,978 in claims submitted without proper documentation.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Carol Nelson, who recently interviewed Ely about his travel expenses, said Thursday that she is talking with other district officials in hopes that they may be able to shed more light on the case. Nelson said she did not know when she would finish the investigation.

Ely has said that the district-commissioned audit is flawed and that he did not violate district travel policies.

The Board of Trustees commissioned the audit after learning that Ely had amassed gambling debts and that he used his district telephone to call hotels and casinos in Nevada.