SIMI VALLEY : Petition Drive to Recall Ely Fails

A Simi Valley citizens group that has been trying to recall Ventura County Community College District Trustee Tom Ely has failed to collect the number of signatures needed to force a special recall election, group officials said Thursday.

Members of the group said they had failed to collect the necessary 9,901 signatures of registered voters in the 4th District, which includes Simi Valley and Moorpark, in time to meet Thursday’s 5 p.m. deadline. They said they did not know how many signatures they had gathered.

Ely could not be reached for comment Thursday.

The recall drive, which began in May, was sparked by a district audit of Ely’s travel expenses that found that he had filed thousands of dollars in questionable claims.

After a five-month investigation, the Ventura County district attorney’s office recently filed a 31-count criminal complaint against Ely and his wife alleging that they conspired to embezzle more than $15,000 in district funds by padding their expense accounts.

The recall drive was endorsed by the Ventura County Federation of College Teachers. The union, which represents about 1,100 college faculty members, contributed more than $1,000 to the recall campaign. Ventura County Community College District Trustee Timothy Hirschberg contributed $100.