Elections -- both local and statewide -- dominated a short and calm Altadena Town Council meeting Tuesday night:
- One of the first orders of business, brought up by vice-chair Ruth Edwards, was an ethics complaint filed against three town council members, whose names and town council titles appeared in a primary election mailer for Assemblyman Anthony Portantino. Edwards said that the three -- who were not identified -- were interviewed and said that they did not give permission to use their affiliation with the town council, which is a violation of council ethics rules.
Later in the meeting, Tanganica Turner, Portantino's field representative, said that it was an oversight of the campaign staff. - Portantino will also be sponsoring HIV/AIDS testing at Vroman's Courtyard at the corner of Raymond and El Molino in Pasadena on June 26 from 11 AM-3 PM, Turner said.
- Town council election chairman Bob Meyer gave his report on the June 5 election. Chiding coverage by Pasadena newspapers, Meyer said "contrary to pre-election reports, we DID have an election with competitive races and great turnouts." The 739 ballots this year represented a 52% increase in voting over last year. Meyer also thanked the 45 volunteers to helped in the election effort.
Meyer said that, for the future, the council needs to consider what constitutes a valid identification to vote -- he said that an "excessive" number of people tried to vote without a proper ID.
In addition, he recommended extending the "no campaigning" boundary for polling places from 100 to 300 feet, and setting up one poll location before the Saturday election for people who otherwise could not vote because of work obligations or religious reasons.
Meyer also said he wanted the candidates to keep away from the polling places, too -- some candidates wanted to monitor the polls personally (ed. note: that happened at our polling place -- makes it a little difficult to vote for the opposition!).
The new council -- which is largely the same as the old council, with the exception of Diane Marcussen, who replaces Susan Goldman in CT 4613 -- will be seated next month.
