LYNWOOD : Council Recall Bid Fails Due to Missed Deadline

A campaign to recall three City Council members has failed, according to the city clerk.

Organizers missed a deadline last week for turning in recall petitions against Mayor Louis Byrd, Mayor Pro Tem Louis J. Heine and Councilman Paul H. Richards II. Organizers needed to gather signatures of 2,565 registered voters to force a recall election.

Benjamin Miranda said that the recall campaign should have been given several additional days to get the signatures because he amended the recall papers after filing them. City Clerk Andrea Hooper disagreed and said the deadline was Jan. 4. Hooper said the organizers had 120 days to gather signatures after she approved Miranda’s original paperwork on Sept. 6.

Miranda said they had not counted the number of signatures collected. Recall organizers had gathered about 1,200 signatures by October, he said.

Miranda and others contend that the three council members favored an unnecessary increase in water rates and mismanaged public money.

Richards, Heine and Byrd voted in August for a 75% hike in water rates, arguing that the fees had remained unchanged for seven years while the price of purchased water had doubled. After residents complained, the council decided to postpone the increase indefinitely.

The targeted council members said the recall campaign was an effort by Miranda and his allies to place their own people on the council. Miranda and another organizer, Ada Candelario McZeal, have run unsuccessfully for the council.