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At 6:30 today — in other words, in enough time for most people here to get to the La Habra City Council meeting at 6:30, 201 E. La Habra Boulevard (northeast of the intersection with Euclid) , if you’re so disposed, the La Habra City Council is apparently preparing to deny Rose Espinosa her due term as Mayor. They are doing this because she has committed the offense of being a Democrat — and that’s giving them the benefit of any doubt. Our correspondent on the ground has this to say:

All but one of the kids in the above composite photo would support Rose Espinoza for La Habra Mayor!
Council member Rose Espinoza has served La Habra with distinction since 2000 and was unanimously selected as Mayor in 2004 and 2008. Espinoza, founder of nationally-recognized Rosie’s Garage, has been a tireless booster for La Habra ’s community services and quality redevelopment. Tonight, the La Habra City Council will meet for their annual re-organization which entails the selection of next year’s Mayor and Mayor Pro-Tem. With only a few exceptions in the city’s history, these leadership roles have been rotated among the council members and Espinoza is now due her third term as Mayor.
Last year, as a new council majority took root and began implementing a blatant political strategy to ensure control of council, the majority voted to bypass Espinoza for Mayor Pro-Tem. Freshman Council member Tim Shaw has embraced some “fuzzy math” that concludes that he should serve as the city’s Mayor next year (conveniently as he runs for re-election), and Council members Tom Beamish and Jim Gomez have also suggested that the “bypass” is not unprecedented. What remains clear, however, is that the act of freezing-out Espinoza as Mayor is partisan political retribution.
Many La Habrans are increasingly concerned by this unethical drift of the council majority into vindictive back-room deals. They’re asking Espinoza’s supporters to attend the La Habra City Council meeting (tonight) at 6:30 PM and show their support for Espinoza as Mayor in 2012. An emerging organization, “La Habrans for Better Government,” has a stated desire to restore ethics and transparency to a city that, before now, has not experienced this level of rancor at the council level. For that reason, the group also supports term-limits for La Habra Council and has filed a “notice of intent” with the City Clerk as they pursue the balloting of an initiative for November, 2012.
Orange Juice Blog members are well-known for such achievements as capturing international criminals, slaying ravenous beasts, destroying the Ring of Power, and casting spells for protection. It’s true that this has, to this point, occurred in videogames — but so do drone strikes. It’s now the time to rally to the La Habra City Council chambers, put on our best “WTF?” and “The WHOLE WORLD IS WATCHING!” looks, and start down the trio of City Council members who are apparently going to deny Espinoza her spot in the rotation.
Whether or not you come to Rose’s aid tonight, you should come to Sharon Quirk-Silva’s aid tomorrow, when the same exact thing, which has been chronicled by this site’s (OK, more FFFF’s) Tony Bushala, will probably (unless one of the three ancient ones on the council has a sudden attack of the smartness) be happening to Fullerton’s former-and-should-be-future Mayor Sharon Quirk-Silva. More on that coming up!
For more about La Habra politics from the surprisingly fertile Orange Juice Blog archives, see this story from 7-1/2 months back: http://www.orangejuiceblog.com/2011/04/la-habra-hanky-panky-and-not-the-octomom-either/ These guys!
Sharon Quirk will be selected. It’s slam dunk. The only thing “Dick” Ackerman hates more than a Dem as Mayor of Fullerton is the recall of the stooges that approved his development project.
I forgot to mention why: Ackerman believes he needs each and every lefty vote in Fullerton to beat the recall. He’s right. He needs them, but even if he got them it wouldn’t help.
By the way, I presume that you have seen the Fullerton Observer write-up on the recall by Vince Buck, in which your name figures repeatedly and prominently. Did you have a rebuttal to it?
My understanding of things is that selecting Sharon Q-S is the obviously right political move that almost any fool could see, but that that “almost any” provision up there might get in the way. Who do you think is the third vote for her?
Whitaker and McKinley. You didn’t see my piece? I just re-posted it.
Of course, if the Blind Mice are as nervous as Tony’s saying, maybe it’ll be unanimous.
I hadn’t seen it when I posted this from my phone. I’ll be attending the meeting and interested in the result.
And I’m going to have a special story on the La Habra meeting, where the result was not in doubt but some of the council behavior was eye-rolling.
I think we may have to Occupy La Habra just to loosen some of these guys up. Video of non-looseness to come.
partisan? When was the last time a Republican was Mayor Pro-Tem in Irvine?
In Irvine, Mayor is a separate elected office, rather that an office from which, as in La Habra, the council generally votes to be occupied by the previous Mayor Pro-Tem. So, to the extent that being Mayor is important, being Mayor Pro-Tem is much more important in La Habra than in Irvine.
Rose Espinoza was denied the position of Mayor Pro Tem as well, apparently (to take councilmembers at their word) as punishment for nominating herself for Mayor. You’ll just have to see the video.