No election in Westlake

The Westlake Village City Council voted unanimously on Tuesday to reappoint three city council members and forgo the city election on Nov. 8. The three reappointed council members are Robert Slavin, Mark Rutherford and Sue McSweeney.

It’s the first time in Westlake Village history that there were no challengers in a city election and the incumbents had to be reappointed by a council vote.

The council said they wanted to save taxpayers the $25,000 it would have cost the city and the county to hold the election.

Lowe’s debate diminished?

All three incumbents said they believe the lack of candidates indicates a satisfaction felt by residents with the state of the city and was not the result of voter apathy.

“I believe that by the fact that no one has run, there is a confidence in the elected officials that we’re going to honestly look at the issues. . .and take into consideration all factors and make well balanced decisions,” Slavin said.

Because there’s no council race, there won’t be an opportunity for the hotly-debated Lowe’s development to become an election issue.

Raf2xKill“That is one issue,” said Mayor Mark Rutherford. “If you sit on the council for four years you don’t just deal with a single issue, you deal with many issues.”

This fall, the councilmembers said they will be busy with the environmental impact report (EIR) for the Lowe’s development. The report is expected to be released by Sept. 1, according to city officials.

Lowe’s wants to build a 168,000-square-foot home improvement store, which will include a 31,000-square-foot garden center on an undeveloped lot off Russell Ranch Road. In addition to the Lowe’s store, Rotkin Real Estate Group has submitted plans to develop an additional 62,000 square feet of restaurant and retail space.

The development also will include a 20,000-square-foot highend car dealership.

In July, the council decided not

fia x5 led to follow Councilmember Jim Bruno’s suggestion to place Lowe’s on the November ballot.

The decision was made because the city said it would not have received the Lowe’s EIR in time for the election.

A majority of the councilmembers said the report was needed to provide a comprehensive list of the development’s pros and cons in order to make a Lowe’s vote meaningful.

When facing a lack of candidates in a council race, the city’s election code offers three options.

The council could have done what they did in this case and simply appoint the candidates to office. Secondly, if nobody files for candidacy, the council can appoint into office any eligible voter of their choice.

The third option the council has is to hold the election even if nobody files to run. The council thought that holding the election would be an unnecessary expense.