Disgraced might be the word to describe Three Valleys Municipal Water District board director Xavier Alvarez, if he were capable of feeling shame. However, given his attempted defense of the federal charges filed against him - arguing that he has a First Amendment right to lie - we suspect that shame is not present in Alvarez's emotional palette.
Alvarez is one of Pomona Mayor Norma Torres' protégés, or Torroégés, to borrow a M-M-M-My Pomona term. He was censured by the Three Valleys board in October last year for misusing the district's health insurance benefits when he falsely claimed his ex-wife was still his spouse in order for her to get medical benefits through Three Valleys.
Alvarez is also the person who is awaiting trial in federal court in Los Angeles for lying about being a Medal of Honor winner.
Calwatch at the FC Blog tells us that Alvarez is on the agenda (click the image to enlarge) for the next Three Valleys board meeting on Friday, April 18th . At the last Three Valleys meeting, Alvarez had asked his fellow board members to reconsider their censure of him. Don't ever say the Alvarez isn't a strategic thinker: let's have the verdict from the water district first, and the trial in federal court later. See here for 11-page agenda item on Alvarez.
We're beginning to come around to KPCC producer Gary Scott's notion that all of these problems with Alvarez can be handled very easily by simply recalling the scoundrel. The Pomonans Alvarez need not rely on federal officials prosecuting Alvarez - something that wouldn't necessarily remove him from office because the charge is a misdemeanor, and in California it would take a felony conviction to strip Alvarez of his seat.
The FC Blog's Calwatch came to the same conclusion in his post and offered up an explanation of how the recall process works, as well as a link to a voters guide to recalls. The process begins by people in Alvarez's district circulating an notice of intent to recall Alvarez. Calwatch explains the rest:
Alvarez then must be served a copy of the notice, with the original going to the County Registrar’s office in Norwalk. It also needs to be published in the local paper. Within seven days, Alvarez is permitted to respond. (I’d love to see his response.) Then, the petition may be circulated, using the standards noted in the guide.
There are about 20,000 registered voters in Three Valleys District 1 as of the last election, although that number has certainly increased due to the Presidential primary this year. This would result in 120 days to circulate the petition and a minimum 20% of the 20,000 or so is required to force the election, or between 4,000-5,000 valid signatures, a daunting task, and more votes than he received in the 2006 election. In addition, the only people who can circulate a petition are residents in that district.
At this point, it would be unlikely to have the election by November 2008, so such a special election, if it were to qualify, would occur sometime early in 2009.
So, voters of Pomona, it's up to you. If you don't mind Alvarez, you can keep him as your duly elected representative to Three Valleys. If you don't, you better get moving and figure on close to a year to get the the recall on a ballot.
Pomona, this one you own, and there's no Lemon Law for Alvarez. Your mayor, Norma Torres, sold you on Alvarez with her endorsement of the accused, so you might talk to her about what she can do to fix things. Maybe she could stop worrying about her political ambitions for a second and do right by the community by organizing an Alvarez recall campaign.
It really is the least she could do.
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