Issue: Recall Elections

A number of Southeast-area officials have faced recall attempts recently, including members of the Norwalk-La Mirada school board and city council members in Lynwood, Hawaiian Gardens and Bell Gardens. Is it too easy to initiate a recall against an elected official?

Kathleen Navejas, Hawaiian Gardens mayor facing a recall attempt, which she claims was engineered by political rival Domenic Ruggeri.

No. Actually recalling an elected official is very difficult. And I believe most people really think before they try it. What they did in Bell Gardens, for instance, is amazing. (Voters recalled four of five City Council members.) The political process means taking the good with the bad, and the public needs to have an easy way to stop elected officials from doing the wrong thing in office. But recalls, the whole process, can be abused. People can start a whole campaign through hate or jealousy--to hurt somebody or to hurt their family. But that’s all part of being a public servant. That’s part of being watched by everybody. It comes with the job.

Domenic Ruggeri, Hawaiian Gardens councilman facing a recall attempt after Navejas and a citizen crossed out Navejas’ name on a recall notice and wrote in Ruggeri’s name.

Oh yes, it’s much too easy to start one of those. The charges listed against me, for instance, are all fictitious. Legally, you can do that -- start a recall based on lies. I was attacked on a personal level without any evidence whatsoever in a public forum. If there’s going to be a recall, it should be about something you actually did wrong. There should be evidence, not just made-up stories. They just don’t have any evidence. If the Fair Political Practices Commission or the district attorney gets you for non-disclosure of donations or misspending, that would be evidence. Now, it’s like a frivolous lawsuit. Recalls should be conducted by the proper authorities.

Allen Shelby, Former Bell Gardens councilman who lost a recall election in December and was replaced in March

No, I wouldn’t say it’s too easy. The system is set up that way so it is easy for people, so politicians have to listen to the people. It’s one of the many checks and balances in the system that’s absolutely necessary. Of course, the people have to work for it, getting all those signatures and votes. But it is possible. Then they have to live with the recall. There’s a lot of people here now that don’t like what happened. They call me up and say they don’t like how one thing or another is being handled by the new council, but I can’t help them anymore. I gave 13 years of my life trying to make this a better place. Now, some of those people see the mistake they made.

The Rev. Charles Linder Floyd, Senior pastor of Second Mt. Moriah Missionary Baptist Church, who failed in an attempt to recall four Lynwood council members

By no stretch of the imagination is it easy to serve recall papers on an elected official. The paperwork is very complicated, and you have to have a lot of information for the forms. In fact, that first part, getting the papers together, is the hardest because everything has to be very specific--every ‘i’ has to be dotted, just so, for the secretary of state. We attempted to recall four of our Lynwood council members this year , and it is not a cakewalk. Now I realize it was not a wise thing to do. Since going through all that, I now have a working rapport with the council. If you do get through all the papers and you file, I think you get some respect; you’re taken more seriously. Now, if someone tried to recall the City Council, I would be fighting on the council’s side.