Supporters of an initiative that would shift West Covina from "at-large" to "by-district" representation say they have gathered enough petition signatures to qualify the initiative. They hope to have this qualified for the November ballot.
However, because of the several delays it took to get the petition approved for circulation by the city attorney, I don’t think that’s realistic. And that could mean a special election (possibly as late as mid-January), at a cost of close to $100,000.
And don’t think West Covina’s city attorney didn’t know what he was doing when he drew out the petition approval process. If the attorney had moved more quickly on approving the petition, supporters could have gotten started gathering signatures in mid- to early-June. Instead, they couldn’t get started until mid-July. Given that late start, it’s amazing that they’ve managed to get the required signatures so quickly.
Three guesses as to the name of West Covina’s city attorney. (And, keep in mind, I’m *not* the one who’s been lobbying so hard to keep him out of Rosemead!)
West Covina's Electoral
It occurs to me that we're having an extremely early presidential primary election next year. If they can't combine the special election on the initiative with the regularly scheduled citywide election in November '07, they might be able to combine it with the presidential primary election in Feb '08. That could save them a boatload of money, and probably produce a much higher voter turnout, to boot.
West Covina's Electoral
Do you get the sense that people are more interested in political representation than they have been in the recent past?