IRVINE : Gaido Status Unclear Despite Court Order

Despite a court order saying Mary Ann Gaido should be seated on the City Council, it remained unclear Wednesday whether she will be allowed to take office.

The City Council is meeting today at 2 p.m. in a special session to discuss Friday’s order by Orange County Superior Court Judge Eileen C. Moore that Gaido be seated and what effect the ruling may have on the city’s complicated election laws.

After a closed-door discussion, the council is expected to decide whether it should proceed with an appeal of the ruling, cancel a November special election called to fill the council seat left vacant by Sally Anne Sheridan’s elevation to mayor, or seat Gaido, City Manager Paul O. Brady said.

The timing of the council’s decision is critical because today is the last day to remove items from the Nov. 6 ballot before it goes to press.

Gaido has already made two attempts to take office since the court order was issued but has been turned away from City Hall both times by City Atty. John L. Fellows. Brady said Fellows immediately filed notice that he was going to appeal Moore’s court order.

Gaido’s attorney, Christopher Mears, is expected today to seek another order from Moore, which would allow Gaido to be seated until Fellows’ appeal is resolved.

“I think (Moore’s) ruling from the bench is effective until a court of appeal says to unseat Mary Ann Gaido,” Mears said.

Gaido’s lawsuit against the city, filed in July, was the second in as many years over city election laws approved by voters in 1988.

Under those election laws, a special election to fill a council seat left vacant by a member who is elevated to mayor must be held if 7% of the city’s registered voters sign a petition. If no petition is filed, the third-highest vote-getter in a council election is automatically seated. Gaido finished third in the June election behind William A. (Art) Bloomer and Barry J. Hammond in a race for two seats, but subsequently a special-election petition was filed.

Sheridan said the confusion over whether to seat Gaido could have been avoided had the previous City Council attempted to resolve inconsistencies in the election laws, which were pointed out by a recently settled lawsuit against former Councilman Cameron Cosgrove, who was challenged as the third-highest vote-getter in the 1988 election.

“The last council didn’t deal with this responsibly, and now we have all these people who acted on their decisions,” Sheridan said. “I told the whole world back in 1988 that this system (of allowing a special election) was crazy, and now we have to go back to court to get a reading on the law.”

Irvine’s November ballot contains two measures that would repeal the election laws enacted in 1988. Measure E would repeal the directly elected mayor process and Measure F would repeal the special-election process.