Council Votes to Keep Elections in March

West Hollywood’s municipal elections will continue to take place in March, the City Council decided Tuesday. Although it rejected a proposal to shift local balloting to November, the council approved four other election reform measures at a meeting that was postponed a day in observance of the Martin Luther King Day holiday.

Councilman John D’Amico and Mayor Pro Tem Jeff Prang proposed a series of reforms for the city’s elections, the most controversial being the city election date change to November to coincide with state and national elections.

The idea behind the proposed move was to increase voter turnout. However, several public commenters, as well as several council members, argued that the local election would get lost amid a presidential or gubernatorial election. They said that although more people might come to the polls, fewer of them would be educated on local issues.

Councilman John Heilman pointed out that the Los Angeles County Registrar of Voters has refused to consolidate municipal elections with state/national elections since the November ballots tend to be quite long already. Heilman said if the city were to proceed with November elections, it would have to create a completely separate ballot, which would create logistical problems and would be cumbersome for voters.

Councilwoman Abbe Land said that a November election would mean higher costs to the candidates because they would have to send out more mailings to residents who are already inundated by other campaign material.

Mayor John Duran said he would rather have a lower turnout with voters better informed about the issues than have a higher turnout with less informed voters.

“Our city is worth having its own elections,” Duran said. “I don’t want our elections getting lost in the statewide races or the presidential races.”

Although the council did not approve moving the elections to November, it did unanimously approve four other proposed election reforms.

The city will request that the county update voter registration rolls. The current roll has out-of-date information, including people registered as living in buildings that were demolished years ago and people who moved long ago or have died.

City staff will work on finding better ways to distribute voter registration forms to new residents and explore the feasibility of standardizing polling places.

The city will also require all candidates to submit copies of their campaign literature for posting on the city’s website. Heilman worried that this might look as if the city was endorsing a particular candidate, but D’Amico said the city of Los Angeles was already doing this, and without any problems.

Term Limits

Several public speakers mentioned the need for council member term limits, saying if the council is truly serious about election reforms, term limits was the most important item they could put forth.

However, the council did not address that issue. Of the five council members, Heilman has served for 28 years, Land for 19 years, Prang for 15 years, Duran for 11 years, and D’Amico for one year.

Additionally, during public comment, several speakers who serve on the city’s boards and commissions spoke about being pressured into endorsing an incumbent candidate during the last city election.

Duran dismissed the concerns, saying it was just part of the political process and people could always say no. D’Amico pointed out they might fear for their political future too much to say no. However, the council did not act on that issue.

Heilman also expressed concerns about lobbyists who also serve as a candidate’s campaign consultant. “It always feels somewhat unsavory when you have somebody who is on one hand running a candidate’s campaign and then two weeks later coming here lobbying on behalf of someone,” Heilman said, urging the council to discuss the issue at a future date.

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