Showing respect for a court decision that ruled that County Supervisors must rescind her appointment to the 3rd District seat on their Board, County Supervisor Dawn Rowe told Z107.7 News that while she is still legally in office, she is no longer acting in an official capacity.
Until the full Board of Supervisors votes to rescind her appointment, she remains in a sort of political limbo, still in office, but not acting in an official capacity. The supervisors are expected to formally rescind the appointment when they meet January 28.
A lawsuit by I.E. United, a political action group whose stated purpose is to get more progressives elected to offices in the Inland Empire, claimed that the Board violated the State’s open meeting laws in the appointment process. The board originally stated it would interview all applicants for the seat of James Ramos, who resigned when he was elected to the State Assembly. However, when 48 residents applied, the supervisors changed the interview process to one in which each supervisor would email his or her top 10 choices to the board clerk, which would compile a list of those who appeared on multiple lists, and those were the applicants who would be interviewed. A judge agreed with I.E. United and ordered Towe’s seat vacated. The County appealed that ruling and asked that Rowe remain in office until the appeal is ruled on.
On January 8, the judge ruled that Rowe cannot stay in office pending appeal and ordered the seat be vacated. The county has appealed to the State Supreme court.
When the Supervisors vote to rescind the appointment, the Governor can then choose to either appoint a supervisor or wait until the upcoming election, leaving the 3rd District unrepresented for up to 10 months.
While the Supervisor’s position is supposedly non-partisan, politics are involved. The Governor is a Democrat, while Rowe is a Republican. Rowe has a lot of support; 11 mayors and some county labor unions have indicated they want the Governor to simply appoint Rowe back into the seat.
