Redondo Beach Is Set to Block Two-Termer’s Election Effort : Politics: Councilman Ron Cawdrey wants to run again despite the city’s term limit. But the city clerk said he won’t put Cawdrey’s name on the ballot.

Redondo Beach City Councilman Ron Cawdrey, who has vowed to challenge the constitutionality of the city’s two-term limit, won’t be able to get his name on the ballot for the March 5 municipal election without a lawsuit, the city clerk said this week.

City Clerk John L. Oliver said Friday that he will refuse to accept Cawdrey’s nominating papers when the councilman tries to file for reelection. Oliver cited a legal opinion drawn up Thursday by City Atty. Gordon Phillips, who found that “it is not necessary for the clerk to accept papers where there is a violation of law or eligibility requirements.”

A two-term councilman, Cawdrey is required by the City Charter to relinquish his post in March. In September, however, he announced for reelection in defiance of the city’s term limit, saying such restrictions are unconstitutional and should be challenged in court.

Earlier, the city attorney found that the City Charter prohibited Cawdrey from serving a third term, but could not prevent him from waging a campaign. In Thursday’s opinion, however, Phillips said the clerk is obligated to reject nominating papers from patently ineligible candidates.

Oliver compared Cawdrey to “a 17-year-old showing up at the counter and wanting to run for public office when you have to be 18. Who’s going to tell him no? Traditionally, it’s the city clerk. I have no motive to make life miserable for Ron. But with a decision by the city attorney saying the man’s not eligible, I’d be derelict to allow his name on the ballot.”

Cawdrey said he is stunned and disappointed by the new opinion but intends to submit his nominating papers Monday morning nonetheless. Should Oliver reject them, Cawdrey said, he will take the matter to court.

“I didn’t want to go through this court battle yet,” Cawdrey said. “I didn’t think I’d have to before (the election). But I think case law specifies that they can’t stop me from being a candidate, even if I have to take them to court to prove it.”