What would Ben Franklin think of the current state of political affairs in La Verne?
Either democracy is dead in La Verne or our elected officials are doing such outstanding jobs keeping our potholes filled and streets clean that there’s no need to hold elections.
The city was supposed to hold an election in March 2013 for three seats – the seats currently held by Mayor Don Kendrick and Councilmembers Donna Redman and Robin Carder – but no candidates stepped forward.
Not a single one.
With so much discord in Washington and in our own state, it’s amazing that there is so much harmony and happiness in our humble hamlet.
If you’re just reading or hearing this for the first time, and are now sufficiently stirred to toss your hat into the political ring (perhaps you think overnight parking citations are excessive and want to make this intolerable act the central tenet of your political platform), you’re too late. The filing deadline to run for mayor or a council post was Dec. 10, 2012. The first day that you could have submitted your paperwork was Nov. 13.
Actually, La Verne is establishing something of a political pattern. In 2011, the city also canceled the city council election due to lack of interest.
Because no one chose to contest any of these three seats this year, the city will save an estimated $70,000, according to La Verne City Clerk Evelyn Leach. This inaction is sort of a Christmas present in reverse.
Taxpayers save $70,000, but isn’t democracy worth more than that?
Perhaps, the residents of La Verne should vote in term limits, just to encourage new ideas every so often.
But, if no residents stepped up to replace the termed-out incumbents, there would be no one left to run our government?
What civics lesson can we draw from this current state of political torpor in our emerald city?
Not that democracy is dead, but that complacency is very much alive!
If anyone’s interested, we invite opposing points of view.