Altadenablog has obtained a copy of the report of the ethics committee appointed by Town Council chair George Lewis. The Altadena Town Council voted, by majority, not to accept the report at the July 15 meeting, because of questions about the legitimacy of the committee.
As it was explained in the meeting, the council's Executive Committee is supposed to investigate election irregularities. However, due to the fact that many members of the executive committee were themselves up for election, Lewis gave the job to the ethics committee that he previously appointed to investigate possible conflicts of interest among the town council.
In brief, the report says that the irregularities identified were mostly quickly corrected and would not have changed the results of the election. However, the committee did find credible evidence of town councilmembers and candidates ignoring warnings to stop campaigning within 100 feet of a polling place, actively attempting to interfere with the election chair's process prior to election,
and:
Two seated Town Council members, one candidate and a few others are alleged to have verbally abused the Election Chair prior to the election; some of these accused seemed intent on interrupting the process rather than assisting with the election.
None of the councilmembers or candidates are named in the report. The report asks that the Town Council investigate these reports of misbehavior, and to start training and working to correct the deficiencies to insure a clean election next year.
Full report follows after the jump:
Altadenablog note: this report was hand-typed from the original copy, so it's possible that typos and other minor errors have crept in. We will correct as they are found!
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Report to the Altadena Town Council from Ethics Committee convened by Chair George Lewis after the 2008 Town Council Elections
July 15, 2008
To the members of the Altadena Town Council,
In early July, Chair Lewis asked certain members of the community to investigate a number of complaints that arose after the election held in June. The Executive Committee felt it was important to have a panel of “neutral unbiased parties who can not be accusing of making any decision for their own gain.”
This “Ethics Committee” recognizes the importance of promoting public confidence in the Altadena Town Council. We also know that those citizens who hold public office may have conflicts arise between their public duty and their personal, financial, business or Council interests from time to time.
The assembled group met on three occasions, review the various written and oral accusations and decided to first focus on the election itself, because of the timeliness of the matter. After much research and discussion, our consensus include the following recommendations:
It is the consensus of the committee assembled last week to recommend that the Town Council certify the 2008 election. We now see no need for a 30-day delay after we audited Tracts 4602, 4603.01 and 4603.02 – the only tracts with known allegations of voting irregularities.
It is the consensus of the committee that there is credible evidence of several violations of a number of the Town Council’s adopted election rules, and if the Town Council chooses to pursue these the Council should use the structure outlined in the by-laws.
It is the consensus of the committee that the Council should resolve the allegations of potential conflict-of-interest in certain members’ votes in the same manner.
Some details for your information
In Tract 4602, there are allegations that a large number of votes cast were from outside the tract boundaries. We counted 202 addresses with signatures, and there were 201 ballots counted – More than one quarter of all votes cast in the election. Only four addresses given ballots for 4602 were outside the tract, while one address in 4602 was given a ballot for 4611(an uncontested tract). We feel this is remarkably accurate for an election with nine polling places and limited training of the volunteers – the committee felt in particular it showed that the process of checking addresses works well though certain procedures clearly can be improved.
It is our understanding that the shortage of ballots at one polling place was corrected quickly, and the two voters turned away did, in fact, return to vote. The election was won by 66 votes, these errors (plus one potential double-vote – not confirmed) would not affect the outcome.
In short, it appears that sleepy, non-controversial 4602 had two of the three candidates wage serious campaigns to get out their voters – and we should all be happy that campaigning worked so well.
The results for 4603.01 and 4603.02, where an inaccurate map was delivered mid-morning to most polling places (and corrected soon thereafter), are as follows: Only one address properly in 4603.01 was given a ballot for 4603.02; since the race in 4603.01 was settled by 25 votes it appears that we as a group were lucky and the error does not sway the election results. No reports of voters “turned away” have surfaced, and those who wrote to notify us of the problem did, in fact, vote in the correct tract.
We found credible evidence for a number of other accusations, or charges, and the potential violations are more complex. It is the opinion of this committee that the Town Council pursues these allegations:
- Three candidates allegedly ignore repeated requests or warnings to stop campaigning within 100 feet of a polling place; one candidates’ worker did likewise at one location.
- One candidate may have interfered actively with the Election Chair’s process prior to the election.
- Two seated Town Council members, one candidate and a few others are alleged to have verbally abused the Election Chair prior to the election; some of these accused seemed intent on interrupting the process rather than assisting with the election.
In addition, we recommend that certain procedures and training be started well in advance of the 2009 election, perhaps as early as this autumn, to avoid such controversies. Topics for review include accurate and more readable maps of our census tracts; strengthened procedures for checking ID and comparing Tract maps; procedures for reporting and dealing with active campaigning near the polls; improvement in the process leading to the election to avoid misunderstanding in staffing and placement of polls, as well as to avoid accusations of favoritism, chicanery and disenfranchisement.
We, as a group, were honored to be asked to review this information, and feel we have provided a very important service to our community, one that may lead to a more transparent, inclusive and fair process going forward. We thank the Town Council for your time this evening.
Report prepared and submitted by Steve Haussler on behalf of Joe Brown and the entire committee.
Ethics Committee Members
Marietta Kruells
Howard Miller
Alonzo Edwards
Ken Marshall
Steve Haussler
Erica Allen
Joe Brown
Greg Mcphee
