Had the Mission Viejo City Council complied with a prior settlement agreement, an Orange County judge would not have removed three council members, according to a retired judge.
“They signed an agreement,” said former Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge LaDoris Cordell. “The judge is enforcing an agreement that the city agreed to create district voting, which was supposed to result in five open seats this year based on the Voting Rights of 2001.”
The Voting Rights Act of 2001 includes a provision that allows implementing district voting where communities of color are disenfranchised by at-large elections.
“After the settlement was agreed to, the Council voted to allow a few of them to stay on past the deadline and that vote itself was in violation of the stipulated settlement agreement signed by the city, the plaintiffs, and the judge," Cordell told the Southern California Record.
As previously reported in the Southern California Record, Mission Viejo City Councilman Greg Raths, Wendy Bucknum, and Ed Sachs were ordered by Orange County Superior Court Judge Walter Schwarm to vacate their elected offices after a Quo Warranto legal action was filed by Mission Viejo resident Michael Schlesinger.
A Quo Warranto legal action is typically filed when there is a question as to a specific elected official’s right to hold public office.
“The city council knew full well what they were doing,” Cordell said. “They just didn't want to abide by the rules. They wanted to set their own rules, but voters stood up and filed the lawsuit. Why they voted in this manner doesn’t matter. They will have to abide by the law.”
The vote extended the three council members’ terms without a public hearing on the decision, according to media reports.
“I don't know what their motives were but clearly they didn’t care what was in the settlement agreement,” said Cordell, who authored the book, Her Honor: My Life on the Bench...What Works, What's Broken, and How to Change It, after she retired. “They did it and it's in violation. The judge was clear.”
The three Mission Viejo council members who were removed from the dais have appealed Judge Schwarm's order.
“I'm very disappointed in how they are trying to turn this on its head to make it sound like this is reverse racism,” Cordell added. "That is not what this is. The Voting Rights Act of 2001 is the law in California. You can't undo it. It's been tested in court and it's been found to be lawful.”