At the Aug. 18 Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors meeting, the board voted to approve a certificate of sufficient signatures for the petition to recall Solvang City Council Member Chris Djernaes. Supervisors also approved putting the recall vote on the Nov. 3 ballot.
The action came four weeks after the July 27 Solvang City Council meeting where the City Council voted to receive the 1,334 unverified signatures on the recall petition and the county Elections Office’s certification of 1,156 petition signatures.
According to the report of registration filed with the Secretary of State, Solvang has 3,679 registered voters and the state requires 25 percent of those voters (in jurisdictions with fewer than 10,000 registered voters but more than 1,000) to sign a recall petition in order to qualify it for the ballot. A Solvang staff report stated that 920 verified signatures were required, and the City Council must accept the certificate of sufficiency from the county Elections Office.
During public comment, resident Lammy Johnstone—who led the effort—said she was sorry that this was taking place.
“However let this be a lesson to any council member or mayor. If you do not listen to we the people of Solvang, we will remove you. Your job, as I look at it, is to represent us. If you do not, we will remove you,” Johnstone said.
Mayor Pro Tem Robert Clarke said about 1,300 people signed the recall petition so the council had no choice but to put it on the ballot and that he supported the action because the “correct number of residents” want this to go on the ballot.
“I think in reading the ballot it was about people feel that Chris is rude. He talks back to people, and I thought, if you recall every ass that’s ever served in public office there wouldn’t be a lot of people in public office,” Clarke said.
One of the petition’s claims is that if Djernaes continues on the council, taxes will go up and quality of life will be diminished.
“I laughed for about a half an hour on that, because if there’s anybody that’s going to raise taxes, it’s going to be over Chris’ dead body,” Clarke said.
During the meeting, Djernaes said he felt he has stood up for the majority of people in the community—both for residents and businesses.
“This is a democratic process and you have to respect that, and it gives me another opportunity to go before the voters and to explain to them what, again, I can only speak for myself, but I can reflect I think on what many of us have said over the last two years that we really do want a better community,” Djernaes said.
The council voted 3-1, with Councilmember Djernaes abstaining from the vote, and councilmember Daniel Johnson voting against putting the recall on the ballot.
This article appears in Aug 20-27, 2020.
