Posted: Friday, November 24, 2006 12:00 am
Deborah Brasket/Looking Forward
Democracy is alive and well in Santa Maria. Let/s keep it that way.
Ever since Hilda Zacarias was elected to the City Council 7 an unprecedented upset, unseating incumbent Marty Mariscal 7 the rumors have been flying. Some claim to come from reliable sources.
The story goes that Mayor Larry Lavagnino is getting ready to resign from office so that he can appoint Alice Patino as mayor, and then appoint Marty Mariscal, the recently unseated council member, to fill her seat on the council. Whether the rumors are well-founded or not, they are fears based on the past practice of appointing rather than electing council members to office.
We all remember what took place in June 2002, when Santa Maria Mayor Joe Centeno was elected to the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors. Even though a general election was scheduled for the following November, and there was plenty of time for Centeno to step down and allow the citizens to elect a mayor of their own choosing, he refused to do so.
He held on to the mayor/s position until December 2002. He thus created a vacancy in the mayor/s position after the November election, which then allowed the sitting City Council to appoint a mayor of its own choosing 7 rather than one elected by the citizens the mayor would be serving.
This is how Larry Lavagnino became mayor of our town 7 not by being elected.
The fear is that a similar scenario is about to unfold. I certainly hope this is not the case. The people of Santa Maria deserve better.
But the point is that it is perfectly possible, and perfectly legal, for this to take place. The only way we can assure that this will never happen again is by changing the City Charter to prohibit appointments to the City Council or mayor/s seat. We need to ensure that when there is a vacancy, a special election will take place or that the seat will remain empty until the next scheduled election.
This right to a special election is worth whatever cost to the taxpayers. If council members were truly being mindful of their constituents pocketbooks they would time their resignations to coincide with an upcoming election, and not wait until after an election to do so.
The practice of continually appointing people to office, while perfectly legal, is also perfectly odious. It smells of that culture of corruption that the voters this November so utterly rejected. It undermines the democratic process, and robs the people of a voice and a choice 7 the right to elect their representatives.
Until we/ve changed the charter, the only recourse citizens will have to unseat an undemocratically appointed council member is to resort to a recall 7 an unnecessarily expensive, divisive and bitter process, but preferable to being denied the right to elect our representatives.
My hunch is that these rumors are not true. I would hate to think that the mayor would try to pull a fast one like that on the people he serves so close after an election. But we can/t always rely on the better nature or prudence of our elected officials.
I hope that when Hilda Zacarias takes her seat on the City Council that we will have a chance to revisit the City Charter and make the changes that will keep these kinds of rumors from ever flying again.
Deborah Brasket is a local resident and can be reached at dbrasket@sbceo.org, or 937-6298. Looking Forward runs every Friday, providing a progressive viewpoint on local issues.
Nov. 24, 2006