DID YOU KNOW about the Sneaky Attempt by Kelley and Goodell to Extend their Terms?
In November 2020 Trish Kelley and Brian Goodell ran for Mission Viejo City Council seats and were elected to two-year terms ending in November 2022. As of October 31, 2021, their biographies on the City’s website continued to reference the two-year terms to which they were elected. Both biographies were footnoted to state, “Term expires November 2022.” (See Kelley biography page from 10/31/21).
On February 22, 2022, after the City Council finally agreed to move to district-based voting, they approved a City district map. Two weeks later, on March 8, 2022, the Council unanimously approved Ordinance 22-343 to establish that City district voting map and then set all current Council members terms to four-year terms. This ordinance effectively extended council members Kelley's and Goodell’s terms by two years--until November 2024--without a vote of the public. At the same time, it brazenly disenfranchised Mission Viejo voters in newly established District 2 (where Goodell resides) and newly established District 4 (where recently Kelley moved to avoid having to run against council members Raths and Sachs).
Shortly after the adoption of Ordinance 22-343, and in response to an astute citizen’s comment at a Council meeting that the biographies of Kelley and Goodell still reflected two-year terms on the City website, their biographies were quietly changed to show terms ending in November 2024. There was no notice of correction posted to the website.
A citizen in District 2, Michael Schlesinger, then filed a lawsuit in OC Superior Court to claim that the city council's plan to grant these two members a two-year extension by fialing to put their seats up for election was illegal. Judge Walter Schwarm in Orange County Superior Court heard the case in the spring of 2022, and ruled on June 28, 2022, that Kelley and Goodell’s terms could NOT be extended. Per the Judge’s order, “… the terms for the disputed seats was two years and not four years.”
Before the case was heard by Judge Schwarm, Mr. Schlesinger implored council members Kelley and Goodell to announce they would simply run in 2022 to avoid the costs and the time associated with another Court case, but they did not. It was only after Judge Schwarm’s decision that these two Council members were forced to say they would run in 2022.
Council members Kelley and Goodell, with the aid of the other three Council members, attempted to deprive the voters of Districts 2 and 4 of their right to vote in the November 2022 City Council election. Thanks to Mr. Schlesinger and Judge Schwarm, voters in these two districts will now be able to vote for their City Council representatives in November 2022.
The Court's full decision granting a preliminary injunction against the City is available here.
See also the Voice of OC article: https://voiceofoc.org/2022/06/oc-judge-orders-all-5-mission-viejo-council-members-must-stand-for-election-in-november/