Voters in La Cañada Flintridge opted for the more experienced candidates, re-electing Dave Spence and Jonathan Curtis on Tuesday to retain their seats on the City Council. Spence will serve a seventh term and Curtis, the city’s current mayor, won a second.
They fended off their lone challenger, Keith Eich, by an unofficial vote of 1,802 for Spence, 1,784 for Curtis and 1,199 for Eich.
“There are a lot of people in LCF that really care about local government, they want to make things better,” said Spence on Tuesday evening, pausing between exchanges with many of the nearly 200 well-wishers who gathered at the Thursday Club to support him and Curtis.
To the delight and relief of members of their crowd, who munched on hors d’oeuvres (the leftovers of which were to be delivered to the local fire stations), early results posted by the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder’s office showed the incumbents held a sizable lead.
“It’s nice for so many people to come out on a weekday,” Curtis said. “Frankly, that community support and engagement in the process shows you that there are actually more people than you think who are engaged in the election process.”
In his first campaign for public office, Eich sought to increase local political awareness and to cultivate support among young families like his own — many of whom, he said, were not previously registered to vote.
“It’s disappointing, but at the same time, I learned a lot and I think a lot of other people learned a lot,” said Eich, who indicated that he likely will launch another City Council campaign in a couple of years. “I feel blessed to have gotten 1,200 votes; it was amazing to have that sort of support. I’ve made a lot of new friends, and that was a great thing.
“Jon and Dave are both great guys and pillars of the community, and they did a fantastic job.”
Even during the festivities at the Thursday Club, the job was at the forefront of both victors’ thoughts.
“It’s really about continuing on with a lot of the things that have been started,” said Curtis, “It’s about dealing with opportunities as they come up, and you’ve got to deal with the challenges as they come up, too.”
His list of priorities includes making the move to the recently purchased new City Hall space to the modernizing the planning and permitting process.
“We want to make sure it happens and that we’ve got the right type of standards,” said Curtis, who also pointed toward Southern California Edison’s recent and ongoing upgrades, spurred by pressure from the city.
Spence joked that he’d go to Disneyland to celebrate his seventh term — but he was serious about another trip he’ll take this week on the heels of the election. He and fellow councilwoman Terry Walker are set to attend the National League of Cities conference this weekend in Washington, D.C.
“And then I’ll just start going to meetings again,” Spence said. “There’s a lot going on.”
High on Spence’s agenda for the coming months: Taking a close look at the number of trash haulers that serve LCF.
“I’m leaning toward a single trash hauler, but we have to wait until we get the final staff report and see all the data,” he said. “But I think it’s going to look positive for the single trash hauler. Some people might not like that, but I think it’s a trend all over the county except here.”
According to the unofficial tally posted by the registrar-recorder Wednesday morning, voters in the county narrowly approved Measure H, which will result in a quarter-cent sales tax increase that will fund mental health, substance abuse treatment, health care, education, job training and other support services for homeless children and families.
The measure, which needed to win by two-thirds of the vote, received an unofficial tally of 379,005 “yes” votes to 182,969 “no” votes, for a 67.44% advantage.
Voters Give Spence, Curtis Another City Council Term
