Three Mission Viejo City Councilors must step down immediately, a California appeals court has ruled.
The state appeals court on Nov. 10 dissolved a temporary stay issued by a lower appeals court after a county Superior Court judge found councilors Ed Sachs, Greg Raths, and Mayor Wendy Bucknam had overstayed their terms.
The councilors were elected to two-year terms in 2018 but stayed in office for four years while the city tried to make the switch from an at-large voting system to a cumulative voting system after the council was sued by a resident who claimed it violated California’s voting law by failing to change its election system.
After attempting for three years to implement a cumulative voting system and ultimately being blocked by the California Secretary of State, who said the council needed approval from the state Legislature first, the council switched to a district-based voting system in July 2021.
Earlier this year, Mission Viejo resident Michael Schlesinger brought a series of lawsuits challenging the terms of councilors who were elected in 2018 and 2020 when the city was attempting to switch to cumulative voting.
An Orange County Superior Court judge ruled in August that Bucknam, Raths, and Sachs overstayed their terms and ordered their removal from the dais, but an appellate court halted their removal after the councilors appealed.
In response to the state appeals court decision, Schlesinger said in a Nov. 10 statement that the order confirms the councilors acted wrongly.
“This order confirms that the incumbent council members violated the public trust and used city resources and taxpayer money to remain in office illegally,” Schlesinger said. “It’s time to take their pictures off the wall.”
Aaron Hand, attorney for Schlesinger, echoed his client’s sentiments, saying in the statement, “The Appeal Court’s Order confirms that the defendants had no legal right to remain in office for the past year-and-a-half, and that the city’s claim that the appeal court vindicated their behavior was plain wrong.”
Two of the three councilors may soon return to the dais, however, if they win their respective Nov. 8 elections.
Unofficial election results as of 5 p.m. Nov. 13 showed Bucknam leading her race with 63 percent of votes to opponent Jon Miller at 37 percent.
Due to Mission Viejo’s new district-based voting system, both Raths and Sachs are vying for the District 3 seat along with newcomer Cynthia Vasquez.
Vasquez had a narrow lead over Raths with 40 percent of the vote, while Raths has 36 percent and Sachs trails at 24 percent.
All five councilors who are elected in this race will serve for four years.
City attorney Bill Curley was not immediately available for comment.
