Judge Allows South Gate Recall Drive to Proceed

A judge ruled Friday that a voter recall drive targeting South Gate’s leading officials can go forward, bringing a high-stakes election one step closer to reality.

Superior Court Judge Dzintra I. Janavs rejected the targeted officials’ claims that the recall should be thrown out because of printing flaws on the petitions.

The decision means that an election seeking to oust the city treasurer and his three City Council allies could occur as early as summer.

Recall organizers, who say they have collected more than 8,000 signatures, said the ruling served to restore voter confidence in the crisis-racked city.

California Secretary of State Bill Jones has said the city’s electoral process is so riddled with cronyism and electoral subterfuge that it ranks as the worst in the state.

“It just shows that the will of the people is stronger than the political manipulation that has taken place by the City Council majority,” said Joe Ruiz, the recall’s lead organizer. “We will prevail.”

But Vice Mayor Xochilt Ruvalcaba, one of the recall targets, called the judge’s decision unfair and said she looked forward to an appeal that could overturn the decision.

“It just sends a message that you don’t have to follow the law,” she said. “Just do whatever you want.”

The central issue in the case revolved around the format used on the one-page recall petitions, which contain the proponents’ reasons for the recall and the targeted officials’ responses.

The officials cried foul because, among other things, their responses distributed to voters appeared in lighter type than the proponents’ statements.

But the judge brushed aside this argument as a minor, technical issue.

She chastised the city’s attorneys for assuming that voters would not bother to read the entire petitions before signing them.

“I frankly don’t see how this is particularly misleading,” Janavs said.

The decision comes two weeks after Jones ordered the city to turn over its electoral process to the Los Angeles County registrar-recorder’s office or the city’s elected city clerk, Carmen Avalos.

The council majority last year replaced Avalos with an elections consultant in an action that Jones said reeked of electoral manipulation.

Recall organizers want to oust Ruvalcaba, Treasurer Albert Robles, Mayor Raul Moriel and Councilwoman Maria Benavides because of alleged corruption. The officials deny the accusations.