CYPRESS : Third Name Is Added to Nov. 7 Recall Ballot

The city has escaped the cost of two recall elections by getting a third name on the ballot just before the deadline, Mayor Cecilia L. Age said Monday.

“The city almost had to pay for another election,” Age said. “If Councilman [Walter K.] Bowman had not yielded to the city’s legal position, his name could not have gone on the ballot in the Nov. 7 election, and the city would have had to pay about $30,000 for a second election.”

At a special meeting Monday morning, the City Council certified signatures on petitions calling for Bowman’s recall. Earlier petitions against Age and Councilwoman Gail H. Kerry had already been certified for a Nov. 7 special election.

Age said an attorney for Bowman questioned whether Monday’s meeting qualified under state law governing recall actions.

Had Bowman pressed the legal issue, Age said, the city could have been forced to call a second special election.

“The Nov. 7 election is already going to cost $70,000 or more,” she said.

“The people pushing these recalls . . . are not taking into consideration the cost to the entire city,” Age said. “This money being spent for a special election could have gone to hire a new police officer.”

But Bob Pepper, president of the Cypress Recall Committee, said that residents were forced to seek a recall.

He said the City Council refused to listen to residents who protested the council’s Sept. 26 decision to build a large carpet distribution warehouse in the Valley View Street area.

“It took us four months before we invoked the recall option,” Pepper said.

“We begged them, and they’re still not listening to us. We’re citizens invoking our civil rights and actually performing our civic duty.”