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Recall Launched Against 2nd dist. Councilwoman Jeannine Pearce


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(Dec. 13, 2017, 9:40 a.m.) -- A number of LB residents used the City Council's webcast/televised period for public comment on non-agendized items to launch the legal process to recall 2nd district Councilwoman Jeannine Pearce by seeking to serve her with a legally-required Notice of Intention at the Dec. 12 Council meeting. Councilwoman Pearce temporarily avoided personal service of the paperwork by exiting the Council Chamber, a move anticipated by recall proponents who said they will instead legally serve her by certified mail later today (Dec. 13.)


Recall supporters come to Council meeting to serve Notice of Intent To Recall on Councilwoman Pearce



Second dist. resident John Crouch came to the speakers' podium (flanked by a number of audience members displaying "Recall Pearce" signs), made a number of charges against Councilwoman Pearce (some stemming from a June 3 CHP-LBPD involved incident in which the DA's office declined to prosecute domestic violence or DUI charges against Pearce; a separate DA Public Integrity Office inquiry continues into matters not publicly detailed at this point by the DA or LBPD.) Mr. Crouch stated that since Councilwoman Pearce had declined to resign, "residents of the 2nd district are left with no other recourse but to seek Councilmember Pearce's recall and removal from office. Mr. Crouch noted that CA Elections Code 11021 requires a copy of the Notice of Intention to be served by personal delivery or by certified mail and "since Councilmember Pearce has evaded personal service by walking away from this public, she will be served by mail first thing tomorrow morning."

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To trigger a recall election, proponents must collect and submit petition signatures from at least 20% of valid registered 2nd district voter signatures within 120 days (the time period hasn't begun yet.) The City Clerk's office indicates that as of Nov. 1, the 2nd Council district had 31,305 registered voters (4th largest number in LB.) 20% of 31,305 = 6,261 valid signatures within 120 days. [Recall proponents traditionally submit more than the minimum required to ensure the recall doesn't fall short if/when signatures may be deemed invalid.]

Money to support the recall effort can come from inside or outside the 2nd district but only 2nd district residents can sign the recall petition. If proponents collect and submit sufficient signatures within the time period, a special 2nd district election will be scheduled in which 2nd dist. residents will decide whether to retain or remove Councilwoman Pearce, and if removed who will replace her (from among 2nd dist. residents who file paperwork to put their names on the ballot to replace her.)

Councilwoman Pearce, a self-described progressive and a member of Mayor Garcia's 2014 "transition team," was narrowly elected in June 2016 with support of organized labor and supporters of a number of generally left-of-center policy priorities. Mayor Garcia swiftly chose Pearce to chair the Council's "Elections Oversight Committee" where she advanced a change in LB law (approved by the Council 5-3 in April 2017 and not vetoed by Mayor Garcia) that now lets the Mayor and Councilmembers use their "officeholder accounts," funded by various contributors, to help elect or defeat candidates for other political offices. Two years earlier, a Council majority voted to triple annual totals that LB electeds could collect in their "officeholder accounts" (a change advanced by Councilwoman Lena Gonzalez, a former Garcia Council office aide elected in mid-2014 and then picked by Garcia to chair the same committee.)

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Earlier in the Dec. 12, 2017 Council meeting, Councilwoman Pearce supported Council passage of a city staff recommended amended agreement that will let the developer of a conceptualized hotel at the SE corner of Ocean/Pine keep 80% of LB's hotel room tax revenue (LB's "transient occupancy tax") for nine years (replacing a May 2016 Council-approved agreement to let the developer retain 50% of the revenue totaling the same sum over 20 years) to facilitate the development (LBREPORT.com coverage of the agendized item here.)

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That was followed by an unusually bitter verbal fight that broke out between Councilwoman Pearce and Councilwoman Price reflecting the lingering aftermath of a politically charged September Council vote (5-4) that derailed an ordinance sought by Pearce (and Gonzalez, Uranga and Richardson) that could have changed work rules and required installation of "panic buttons" at large LB hotels that proponents said would protect hotel room workers from physical assaults and management retaliation. A number of LB hotel owners/hospitality interests strongly opposed the proposed ordinance, with some opponents arguing it amounted to a device to help a union seeking to represent the workers. A five-vote Council majority (Price, Supernaw, Mungo, Andrews, Austin) instead enacted a Council resolution (motion by Austin, said the issue deserved further study) that recited support for worker protections, encouraged safety plans and supported workers' right to unionize...without the force of ordinance law.

Developing.

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