Highland Council Members Recalled

Voters in Highland have ousted three councilmen in a small-town version of the hard-fought recall campaign that put Arnold Schwarzenegger in the governor’s seat.

By significant margins, voters replaced Mayor Raymond Rucker, Councilmen Steve J. Graves and Bradley Sundquist with Ross B. Jones, Penny Lilburn and Jody Scott in a campaign that was rife with allegations of misuse of public funds and distortion of the truth.

Although the turnout was relatively small -- 22% -- nearly two-thirds of those who voted supported the recall, according to preliminary results from Tuesday’s election.

Rucker partly attributed the strong support for the recall on having the city’s election so soon after the state recall of Gov. Gray Davis.

“I think there are a lot of people out there that if they get a chance to vote against government, they will vote against government,” he said.

On the ballot argument, recall supporters charged that the three council members attended a water board meeting in November, where they allegedly offered to buy a parcel from the district for $10 million.

Recall supporters contend the council members attended the meeting and made the offer in violation of the state’s open meeting laws. They also accused the three lawmakers of disregarding public safety by delaying construction of a fire station.

Rucker called the charges groundless and said the recall was financed by forestry officials upset that the three had sought to audit the city’s contract with the California forestry department, which provides fire services for the city.

Jones, a leader in the recall drive, denied a link between the forestry contract and the recall campaign.

The Highland recall campaign was awash in personal attacks. Recall supporters created a Web page, publicizing Graves’ drunk driving arrest in October. Graves’ arraignment on the accusation is scheduled for Friday.

Meanwhile, Rucker made a citizen’s arrest in December of several youngsters who were allegedly stealing “No on the Recall” signs from his frontyard. He said he believes the recall organizers put the kids up to the alleged crime.

Jones conceded: “It got pretty down and ugly.”

But both Jones and Rucker point the finger of blame at the other for the mudslinging.

“We were not dirty in the campaign,” Jones said. “We didn’t [allege] anything that was not factual.”

Rucker said he wants to put the campaign behind him. “I said all along that I worked for the people and if they don’t want me, I’ll get on down the road.”

The new council members are expected to be sworn into office Jan. 27.

Meanwhile, election officials in Riverside finished counting about 150 ballots that were collected from drop-off locations for Tuesday’s City Council runoff election, declaring Dom Betro the winner in the race for the Ward 1 seat.

Betro, president of a family-services agency and part-time restaurateur, won by 43 votes against Deputy Dist. Atty. Paul Fick, who said he would not contest the results.

In Ward 3, Art Gage, a business consultant, finished with 91 votes more than Mike Goldware, a contract lawyer and Riverside Unified School District board member.

Steve Adams, a retired police officer, remained the winner in Ward 7, though his lead over Terry Frizzel, a former council member and mayor, narrowed from 177 votes to 161.

Times staff writer Allison Hoffman contributed to this story.