It’s been a roller coaster week for two locals vying for spots on the Malibu City Council.
June Louks, a Malibu resident whose attempt to run for City Council was initially denied by Los Angeles County officials, is back in the race for the April 8 election, city officials said. But Jacky Tomlinson, another prospective candidate attempting to get on the ballot, has been disqualified because of insufficient petition signatures, according to City Clerk Lisa Pope.
Louks and Tomlinson both appeared to have similar problems on their petitions, when some of the registered voters who signed their petitions listed incorrect addresses.
In order to enter the City Council race, candidates must obtain between 20 and 30 signatures and addresses from registered Malibu voters.
On Wednesday of last week, Pope in an email announced Tomlinson and Louks had not qualified for the election. But the next day, Pope in another email stated that Louks had in fact qualified for the race. Louks said two of her signatures from Paradise Cove residents had come into question by Pope.
City Manager Jim Thorsen said when the city received the candidates’ nomination petitions back from the county, there were 18 qualified voters on Louks’ list of signatures. After Louks and members of her political steering committee approached the city, the clerk’s office found that two of the disputed signatures were from valid addresses of registered Malibu voters in Paradise Cove, at a location the county refers to by a different name.
“Once the mistake was identified, the Paradise Cove residents’ signatures were counted toward the 20 needed to qualify for the ballot,” Pope said on Tuesday.
Thorsen said the city can certify a candidate without obtaining approval from the County of Los Angeles.
“It’s up to the city clerk to review all of these,” Thorsen said. “We’ve gone through and sometimes in the past the county will not always have everything 100 percent correct…Everything seemed to be in accordance with the law, [so] we… let [Louks] come into the race.”
On the other hand, Tomlinson was found to come up three shy of the 20-signature minimum, Thorsen said, with 17. Tomlinson disputed the results, arguing that four of her signatures had Malibu addresses but had unknowingly listed old voting addresses.
“I have four people who are registered, verified Malibu voters and they are not letting their signatures count if they’ve moved to a different address,” Tomlinson said Tuesday.
Despite efforts from Tomlinson and some of her supporters to be reinstated to the ballot, that conclusion was still the case after the city and county recorder’s review, Pope said after meeting with Tomlinson on Tuesday.
“She doesn’t have 20 qualified signatures…I have nothing else to review,” Pope said Tuesday.
Along with Louks, other candidates certified for the April 8 election are incumbent council members Laura Rosenthal and Lou La Monte, and slate candidates Andy Lyon and Hamish Patterson.
When asked if she planned on supporting other candidates in the race, Tomlinson said, “Not at this time.” Despite her elimination, she said she hoped to continue promoting a pro-small business agenda throughout the community and will likely run in the 2016 election.
