IRVINE : Petitions Prepared to Keep Seat Vacant

A group of Irvine residents intent on preventing Mary Ann Gaido from filling an open City Council seat plans to file petitions Monday to keep the seat vacant until it can be filled in the November election.

Gaido, the third-highest vote-getter in the June city election, qualifies to fill the remaining two years of Councilwoman Sally Anne Sheridan’s term when Sheridan steps in to the mayor’s seat.

Gaido, the city Planning Commission chairwoman, lost to Art Bloomer and Barry J. Hammond, who won two open council seats.

In the past several weeks, the group has collected 2,900 signatures. This weekend, about 35 residents will canvass shopping centers in a final push for 3,861 signatures, or 7% of the city’s 55,163 registered voters, that are required to force a special election, said Christina L. Shea.

Shea led last November’s efforts to repeal a sexual-orientation clause from Irvine’s anti-discrimination law, a voter initiative called Measure N.

Measure N supporters are credited with providing Sheridan enough votes to defeat incumbent Mayor Larry Agran. However, Sheridan opposes the petitions and would like to see Gaido seated. Although members of the group believe Gaido is too liberal, Shea said, the group also wants the voters to decide who fills the seat.

Despite a July 15 deadline to collect signatures, Shea said the group wants to turn the petitions over to the City Council before it can vote to certify election results Tuesday, which would automatically seat Gaido to complete Sheridan’s term. The council will meet at 4 p.m. Tuesday to consider certifying the election, ordinarily a routine matter, but recently made complex by conflicting sections of the city’s election law, which was amended by voters in June, 1988.

Once the council certifies the election, two council members whose terms are ending--Cameron Cosgrove and Edward A. Dornan--will leave office, and Gaido moves into Sheridan’s council seat. Because of glitches in the election law, Bloomer and Hammond are not allowed to assume office until July 20, and Sheridan can’t take her seat as mayor until July 13, the day after Agran’s term officially ends.

The council has been discussing how to bridge this gap when outgoing council members leave and newly elected members take over.

The council delayed certifying the election results on June 26 after the city attorney and a pair of attorneys hired to review the city election laws disagreed over the best action.

A special meeting scheduled June 30 was canceled because the attorneys could not agree when the results should be certified and how to solve the term-of-office gap.