IRVINE : Panel to Decide How to Fill Council Seat

A three-judge appeals panel will hear arguments today in a case that eventually will decide how the fifth City Council seat will be filled.

The decision by the state Court of Appeal is expected either to give the seat to Mary Ann Gaido, who a Superior Court judge said has a legal right to the seat, or to clear the way for a Nov. 6 election.

The council seat has remained vacant since July when Sally Anne Sheridan left the seat to become the city’s second directly elected mayor.

Under city election laws, the seat normally would have gone to Gaido because she finished third in the June 5 contest for two council seats, barely losing to William A. (Art) Bloomer and Barry J. Hammond. But the election law also allows residents to file a petition signed by 7% of the city’s registered voters calling for the seat to be filled by a citywide election. In July, a residents’ group gathered enough signatures, and the council called a special council election for Nov. 6.

The citizens’ petition is now the center of the conflict.

The petition’s wording states that the election would be called to fill an opening on the council but omitted any reference to the city’s ability to fill the seat without an election by installing the next highest vote-getter from the June contest.

On Aug. 31, Superior Court Judge Eileen C. Moore sided with Gaido in a lawsuit, ruling that the wording of the petition probably misled residents into believing that an election was the only way to fill the seat. The city immediately appealed her decision on the grounds it violated Irvine’s right under the state Constitution to draft its own election laws and petition wording.

Irvine has a right to draft wording required on city petitions, John C. Adams III, one of Gaido’s attorneys, said on Monday. “But there is no constitutional right for a city to put a petition in front of the voters that is misleading.”

Also waiting for the decision, along with Gaido, are five potential candidates who have been considering a chance to run for the seat should the state Court of Appeal overturn Moore’s ruling.

Also watching are current council members, three of whom have said they would rather not have Gaido join them and voted to appeal the Superior Court’s ruling. Sheridan, Bloomer and Hammond, the conservative council majority, have said they are appealing the case because of the hundreds of residents who signed the petition calling for a special council election. Critics, however, contend that the council is fighting to keep Gaido, a Democrat, off the council because of her advocacy of slow-growth policies and other views.