A bill intended to allow the installation of five new members of the Bell City Council was signed into law Monday by Gov. Jerry Brown.
AB 93 allows the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors to adopt a resolution to officially declare the results of the March 8 election and require the city clerk to install the new council members within 48 hours of the board's adoption of the resolution.
The board Tuesday certified the raw election data, collected by the county's registrar-recorder. That data was then sent to Bell's city clerk, who needs to make her own certification and return her result to the board for its final resolution, according to a spokeswoman for Assemblyman Ricardo Lara, D- Bell Gardens, who authored the state bill.
The resolution is expected to be on the agenda for the board's weekly meeting next Tuesday. Its vote would finally clear the way for the new council members to be installed within the following 48 hours.
Bell law requires the council to declare the election after its results are certified by the city clerk. Lara authored AB 93 at the request of Bell interim Chief Administrative Officer Pedro Carrillo and interim City Attorney James M. Casso because the absence of a functioning City Council left it impossible to declare the results of the election.
Bell law requires the council to declare the election after its results are certified by the city clerk. However, a judge's order Feb. 17 requiring Mayor Oscar Hernandez and council members Teresa Jacobo and George Mirabal to stay at least 100 yards away from City Hall left it impossible for the council to have a quorum to meet a declare the results.
Bell voters recalled Jacobo and elected replacements for her and Hernandez and Mirabal, who did not seek re-election, and former Councilman Luis Artiga, who resigned.
The fifth council member, Lorenzo Velez, the only incumbent who was not indicted, was defeated.
The bill is the first Brown has signed since taking office and the first Lara introduced.
