On August 11, the Riverbank, California city government said it would not try to remove Jesse James White from its city council. A grand jury had recommended that he be unseated, because he wasn’t a registered voter when he was elected in November 2008. See this story. But the city’s position is that the voters elected him, so he stays.
Ballot Access News
Edited By Richard Winger
One more MORON regime (which also should be indicted) — like the entire MORON FL regime in 2000.
Elections do NOT cure all.
What is the rationale behind requiring someone to be a registered voter in order to run for office? Not all states require that.
Actually the city’s response was that they didn’t have the authority to remove him, saying that either his election had to have been contested in a timely fashion, or that the State AG could act based on a complaint from a citizen.
The original complaint to the grand jury appears to be that Jesse James White was not a resident of the city when he was elected. Since then it appears to have shifted to more an issue whether he was registered, or whether he had perjured himself when his application claimed he was registered.
His grandfather, Dave White, is also a member of the city council, having been elected in 2006. Both are a target of a recall drive which has until August 22 to gather enough signatures.
In November 2008, Christopher Crifasi was re-elected mayor, while Jesse James White and David I White (no relation to Dave White or Jesse James White) were elected to the city council.
Crifasi resigned a month after his election, to take a job elsewhere. David I. White, who was Vice Mayor, became mayor. Among the complaints to the grand jury was that the city manager had known that Crifasi was going to resign and had not made that public.
In choosing an appointee for the vacant city council seat, there had been over a dozen 2-2 votes with the White family aligned against the other two members, before a final choice was made.
In May, David I. White resigned as mayor, and now there is a special mayoral election in November. Dave White, the grandfather, as is Virginia Madueño, former city councilwomen who lost the mayoral race in November 2008. Madueño is also involved in the recall campaign.