Krekorian Recall Gaining Steam: Moves to Signature Collection Stage

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THIS IS WHAT I KNOW-In response to the rash of demolition development disrupting their neighborhood, the members of Save Valley Village are focused on gathering signatures for a Krekorian recall petition ahead of the July 26 deadline. “Ideally, we want to get in before the deadline,” explains a representative for sVV, “There a section in the election code that allows us to assume for some mistakes in signatures or for people who aren’t registered. This gives us a time period to go back to collect additional signatures or to correct mistakes.” (Photo above: Councilman Paul Krekorian in council chambers.) 

Instead of going door to door, the group has been attending local events, doing what they can to make sure everyone signing is registered, and meeting with pockets of people throughout the city districts to circulate and spread the word.

As soon as enough signatures are collected, the group will submit the petition to the clerk, who has twenty days to review the signatures and at that point, if it’s before the deadline. Within twenty days, the petition needs to be sent to council and a special election would be organized for all voters in CD 2. February 25, the organization served a note of intent to serve, which was also sent to Councilmember Krekorian on February 29. On March 1, the notice was published in the newspaper, as required. Krekorian had twenty-one days to answer to the notice. He had not responded by the March 21 deadline. The petition was approved by March 31. 

If the petition gathers enough of the requisite signatures, a special election will be held. The sVV representative shares that a couple of people have mentioned they might run. “What we’re contemplating is how to really tell if it’s the right person for the job if we’re doing all this work to create a seat, if we’ve seriously given up our lives. This is all we do 24 hours a day and if people are waiting to know if a seat has opened up, that’s the wrong person for the job. This shows us they paid zero attention to the Recall Krekorian effort and the issues. If a candidate is really interested in the community problems, he or she wants to review our site and get involved in the recall. We hope we aren’t doing this to roll out another red carpet for an identical problem.” 

The Save Valley Village members have committed thousands of hours to fixing a problem facing their community and hope to extend that commitment to mentor other districts with similar issues. “We don’t want people to be afraid. People have a right to send back their meal when they’re served something wrong. It’s okay to speak up. It’s the only way it’s going to happen,” the sVV rep advises. “If it’s not working, we can fix it. We really think we can change things and get this back on track. It sounds really cheesy but sometimes it takes the smallest amount of effort to make the biggest impact. We have to get away from this attitude that I’m just one. Come to a meeting. Spend an hour a day informing your neighbors.”

 

ACTION INFO   Where can I sign the petition from Save Valley Village?   MAY 21 circulators will be at Fryman Canyon between 8:30am and 11:30am. MAY 21 circulators will also be at the HOPE WALK in North Hollywood Park between 8am and 1pm. Council District 2 covers a wide range of areas including: Los Angeles, West Hollywood, Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Sun Valley, La Tuna Canyon, Shadow Hills, Van Nuys, Panorama City, Sherman Oaks, Burbank, NoHo, Toluca Terrace and Studio City. People may not even know they CAN sign a petition to stop corruption. They can easily find out what Council District they fall under by typing in their address here.  Petitions are also available Monday through Saturday during business hours at PINK PRINTERS in Studio City and The Candy Factory in Valley Village. If folks are out running errands this is a great way to stop in and sign at a small local business. Petitions are also available on the Save Valley Village website, should anyone prefer to print out their own and sign that way. Take the petition to neighbors. Just send us an email and we will send someone right over to pick up the signed petition. Most importantly, even if folks think they are registered, signatures are useless unless the signers are registered in Council District 2. This is easily checked by going to this site.

 

 

 

(Beth Cone Kramer is a successful Los Angeles writer and a columnist for CityWatch.) Edited for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.

Tags: Beth Cone Kramer, This is What I Know, Save Valley Village, Recall petitions, Paul Krekorian, LA City Council, developers, vote trading