Los Alamitos School Board recall fizzles out
DEMOCRATIC CLUB
by Mary Larson
LW contributor
The Orange County Register of Voters recently announced there will be no election to recall Los Alamitos School District Board trustees—at least not in the immediate future. During the Sept. 28 board meeting, trustees Chris Forehan, Scott Fayette and Megan Cutuli were served with notices of intent to recall them. However, the proposed recall petitions needed to be certified by the Orange County Registrar of Voters before they could be circulated for voter signatures.
This certification was only the first step of several that would have to be taken before voters would see a recall ballot. (To learn more about these steps, readers are urged to visit
www. ocvote. com or Google “handbook on the procedures for recalling local Orange.”) If the petitions had been certified by the Registrar’s office, recall supporters would have to then collect approximately 2,000 signatures of voters from each of the three trustees’ districts within 90 days. A very large percent of these 6,000 individuals from whom signatures would have to be collected live and vote in Leisure World.
While waiting for information from the Registrar about the status of the recall effort, Democratic Club members continued to inform Leisure World residents concerning the situation. They urged voters to refuse to sign the petitions in support of the recall if they were certified for distribution in the LW community. And if the petitions had been certified, the club was ready to carry out more intense outreach efforts to voters. Fortunately, this is no longer needed.
The Registrar’s office returned what was reportedly the third draft of the petitions on Dec. 7, with a deadline of Dec.17 for revisions. No revisions were submitted by the deadline, so all three trustees have been notified they will not be subject to a recall election.
For more information about this aborted recall effort and what might happen in the future, LW Democrats and their supporters are invited to subscribe to the club’s free electronic newsletter by contacting editor Mary Larson at (562) 296-8521 or democraticclubsblw@gmail.com.
