La Habra HOURS AWAY from Cutting Rose; Sharon Next in Fullerton?

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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:

 

Rose Espinoza with kids, Tim Shaw with burdens

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!

About Greg Diamond

Somewhat verbose attorney, semi-disabled and semi-retired, residing in northwest Brea. Occasionally ran for office against jerks who otherwise would have gonr unopposed. Got 45% of the vote against Bob Huff for State Senate in 2012; Josh Newman then won the seat in 2016. In 2014 became the first attorney to challenge OCDA Tony Rackauckas since 2002; Todd Spitzer then won that seat in 2018. Every time he's run against some rotten incumbent, the *next* person to challenge them wins! He's OK with that. Corrupt party hacks hate him. He's OK with that too. He does advise some local campaigns informally and (so far) without compensation. (If that last bit changes, he will declare the interest.) His daughter is a professional campaign treasurer. He doesn't usually know whom she and her firm represent. Whether they do so never influences his endorsements or coverage. (He does have his own strong opinions.) But when he does check campaign finance forms, he is often happily surprised to learn that good candidates he respects often DO hire her firm. (Maybe bad ones are scared off by his relationship with her, but they needn't be.)