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Add Another Name to the Race for Council District 2
Council District 2 | View Larger Version here
Council District 2 | View Larger Version here
It will not be until July that Councilmember Wendy Greuel will be vacating her seat to become City Controller, but the list of possible candidates continues to grow. "A lot of people have come to me and said I should look at it," Lisa Sarkin of the Studio City Neighborhood Council told Rick Orlov of the Daily News. She says she's encouraged by David Vahedi, who with his neighborhood council background is in a tight runoff for Council District 5 seat against longtime politician Paul Koretz (that election is on May 19th). Other possible candidates include Studio City Neighborhood Council president Ben Neumann and former Sherman Oaks Neighborhood Council president Ken Gerston. This pattern of neighborhood councilmembers will probably be a pattern to see in future generations of City Council. And they'll face the usual opposition, long time city staffers or other elected officials like field Deputy Joan Pelico, neighborhood prosecutor/LAUSD district rep, Tamar Galatzan and former assemblywoman Cindy Montanez.
With all that said, City Council has a choice in the matter too. They don't have to hold a special election--by law (Article IV, Sec. 409 of the City Charter), "the Council may fill a vacancy by appointing a person to hold the office for the portion of the unexpired term remaining through the next June 30 of an odd-numbered year." Council President Eric Garcetti prefers it not to be that way. "The people of Los Angeles deserve to vote for their representative and in a timely manner," he said to Orlov.
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You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
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