IRVINE : Residents’ Panel to Study Election Woes

The City Council will form a committee to study how to improve the city’s election process, which council members say needs to be changed before the next council election in 1992.

A panel of two council members and other city officials already had looked into possible reforms and suggested that voters be asked to choose an extra council candidate when a current council member runs for mayor. That way, if an open seat were created, the extra candidate would take office. But some on the council disagreed and said a residents’ committee should study the matter.

Changing the city’s election law is intended to repair a problem that resulted in lawsuits after the 1988 and 1990 elections.

Irvine’s current election law states that if a council member is elected mayor with time remaining in his or her council term, the rest of that term will be filled by the person who lost in that year’s council race by the fewest votes. The law also allows for residents to file a petition demanding that the open seat instead be filled through a special election.

Because the law makes it possible for a person losing the election to take office, an appeals court judge said the method probably was unconstitutional.

To simplify the procedure and protect it from further lawsuits, city officials said they want a process more immune from legal challenge.

The residents’ committee is to report its suggestions to the council by April.