Mayoral Challenger Loses to Incumbent Roberts

Incumbent Frank Roberts held off a challenge by fellow council member and political rival Michael Singer in Tuesday’s election to win a second two-year term as mayor of this high-desert city.

With unofficial tallies showing 22.4% of registered voters casting ballots, Lancaster residents struck a blow for the status quo, electing two candidates who are unlikely to change the current balance of power on the council.

The election, in which almost the entire City Council was up for grabs, was considered pivotal because of the possibility that a new faction led by Singer would gain majority control.

Roberts, a businessman and former dean of Antelope Valley College, and Singer, a captain with the Los Angeles County Fire Department, have squared off repeatedly since Singer was elected to the council four years ago. Roberts was elected to the council in 1992 and served four years before becoming the city’s first elected mayor when the office was instituted in 1996.

Roberts and Singer are the unofficial leaders of two camps with widely divergent views over how to handle the city’s explosive growth.

Henry Hearns, a minister and council incumbent, and Michelle Idleman, a gang prevention officer, who won four-year council seats, were seen as very likely to support Roberts in his bid to attract more business to the city.

Winning a two-year seat was Andrew Visokey, an aerospace worker.

A key clash between the two camps was over Roberts’ liberal use of the city’s redevelopment agency to spur economic growth.

Roberts’ campaign slogan was “Let’s Continue the Progress” and he recently referred to the redevelopment agency as “the mother’s milk of development for cities.” He had vowed to work to bring high-paying jobs to Lancaster “where people are tired of spending four hours in their car [commuting] to get to a decent job.”

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Singer on the other hand, has argued that Roberts, Hearns and a few others have placed the city at risk by funding questionable projects with money borrowed against future tax revenues.

He rejected Roberts’ characterization of his policies as “anti-growth,” saying that he supports “development that is good for the whole city and not just a small group of City Hall insiders.”

In all, 11 candidates, including four current council members, were vying for the mayor’s job and three other seats on the five-member council.

Councilman Jim Jeffra has two years remaining in his term.

The one-time only election for the two-year seat was part of an ordinance adopted by the council last year that made the mayor’s job an individually elected position. Before that, the five council members elected the mayor each year from among themselves.

In Lancaster, where only 20% of registered voters cast ballots in 1996 elections, officials said the higher turnout this year was buoyed by almost 50% more absentee and mail-in ballots.

“I think that fact that we have three races this time, including the mayor’s race, has been a factor. It is considered an important election,” said Lancaster City Clerk Donna Grindey.