Crawford Camp Crumbles in Favor of New “Civility”

By Terry Miller

Published: Wednesday, April 14th, 2010

Buchanan Introduces Mosca as City’s Next Mayor

By Terry Miller and John Stephens

Sierra Madre’s most contentious election in recent history came to a spectacular close Tuesday evening with Joe Mosca, Josh Moran and Nancy Walsh elected by significant margins over their opponents who, according to many residents, ran a somewhat vicious smear campaign particularly against councilmember Joe Mosca.
At a victory party at firefighter and longtime Mosca supporter Bob and Rosemary Burnett’s home Tuesday evening, over-joyed voters watched as the votes kept coming in for the underdogs. Once it was obvious that they had won the election, it was time for Mr. Mosca to make a brief statement. The task of introducing Mr. Mosca fell to fellow Councilman John Buchanan who introduced him with what many in attendance would call long-overdue credit, saying, “Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the next Mayor of Sierra Madre.” Cheers could surely be heard all the way up Mt. Wilson as Mosca thanked his campaign staff and supporters for “keeping up the good fight” and “not letting negative campaign tactics deter them” from the honor they won Tuesday evening.
“It’s a terrific victory for Sierra Madre, we’re ecstatic,” said former planning Commissioner and local business woman Sue Levoe. That sentiment was echoed tenfold by the scores of well-wishers and campaign staff at Josh Moran’s family home as well. It was hugs all around as people from all walks of life popped in to thank the victors for changing the direction of the city council. Long-time resident Karma Bell said she agreed with Sue’s comments and added that she’s “thrilled” with what apparently turned out to be a positive effect of the other side’s relentless attacks on Joe Mosca and the Sierra Madre Fire Department.
At the root of the problem, as is often the case in politics local, national or international, is power.
The previous Sierra Madre council was notoriously divided and left little wiggle room for policy-making of a non-political nature. The divisive and conflict-ridden approach some say the preceding council injected was detrimental to any communication and made progress slow.
Councilman Buchannan perhaps said it best when he offered that “there’s no Republican or Democratic way to pave the streets.”
Sierra Madre Weekly contacted Nancy Walsh Wednesday just prior to deadline and she expressed her delight at being elected. “I’m very excited,” she said in a telephone interview. “I’m also surprised and actually astonished at the results. It was a landslide!”
She went on to say that she was looking forward to a “new creative period for the City of Sierra Madre” and that she has “a great deal of hope for new ways of looking at the city business.” Walsh added that the current sitting Mayor, MacGillivray “may never know how much she helped her opponents campaigns.”
The sitting Mayor MacGillivray has been accused of being fanatical and disrespectful of those whom she opposes. Case in point was the most recent City Council meeting when she effectively politicized the chambers by allowing – or in the opinion of many, encouraging – a line of naysayers to lash out at councilman Mosca from the public comment podium. When Mosca moved to defend himself and his record, the matriarchal mayor admonished and publicly humiliated him by threatening to have the police remove him from the council chambers. (A video clip of the exchange can be seen on our website.)

According to Michael Bamberger, a priest and long-time Sierra Madre Firefighter the events of that evening as well as those witnessed during the 1991 Earthquake in Sierra Madre caused him and many others to have “lost all respect for MacGillivray”. According to Bamberger, MacGillivary and other council members at the time were on some sort of out of town retreat when the earthquake hit town. Upon learning of her hometown’s serious quake which caused extensive damage, the then city councilmember MacGillivray returned to check on the status of only her own home before promptly returning to the retreat without attending to the emergency. She and the council did not declare a state of emergency to qualify for emergency government money and the fire department’s hands were tied with the limited resources on hand. “It took weeks for us to even have a Declaration of Emergency,” said Bamberger.
And then, there was the blog. And apparently that blog, like a once-busy campaign office following a loss, has been promptly closed for business. So much for the self-proclaimed “finest news source in Sierra Madre.”
During the course of the campaign, the highly contentious and often incendiary Sierra Madre Tattler posted or allowed the posting of accusations, half- or un-truths and inflammatory comments, most of which were written by those who had not the courage to attribute their names to their defamatory screeds. Not more than a few hours after the results were posted, the Tattler ceased operations, claiming it would be on a “spring cleaning” break for some time to come. The owner of said blog was candidate John Crawford who seemed to relish in controversy anywhere or way he could find it or, barring that, make it up.
His small band of “anonymous” supporters spent most of the campaign extolling the demise of the town if its citizens voted anything other than the Crawford/Alcorn/Watts ticket.
The endless ramblings of Crawford and his broadband of digital disciples did not, it now seems apparent, impress enough members of the community, and the election results themselves will stand as testament to that fact. That, combined with MacGillivray’s recent outburst in which the ceremonial gavel was used repeatedly to nail shut her own crowded coffin.
The general consensus Tuesday evening in speaking with a number of voters was that the return of civility and graciousness to local government was essential, something “had to happen,” as one voter said.
The Eminent Domain measure also passed with 86% of the voters saying yes to the measure that prevents the city of Sierra Madre from obtaining one’s property for the “better good” of Sierra Madre.
One jubilant Joe Mosca supporter quipped that Crawford only managed to beat perennial candidate “Eagle” Bill Tice, suggesting that a new outlet might run a satirical headline such as “In Shocker, Crawford Bests Tice,” though no new organization, as of yet, has attained the level of Tattler-esque shamelessness to do so.
One voter stood on the corner of Sierra Madre Blvd and Baldwin Tuesday evening as the polling places begged their last voters. Bearing not only the pre-printed Mosca-Moran-Walsh campaign signs but also a hand written sign which read: “Return civility to City Council – Vote.” Paul Hapersarian helped the protestor make that momentous decision Tuesday evening.
The next city council meeting is April 27 where the new elected officials will be sworn in and the new mayor will be selected.

Here are the semi-official results:

Candidate Precinct 02A Precinct 06A Precinct 10A Absentee Uncertified
Totals
Crawford – Council 248 205 207 413 1073
Alcorn – Council 265 210 215 394 1084
Tice – Council 14 21 12 30 77
Walsh – Council 374 341 302 449 1466
Watts – Council 299 229 242 460 1230
Mosca – Council 426 378 359 541 1704
Moran – Council 443 366 354 480 1648
Measures
Yes on ED 536 481 438 790 2245
No on ED 103 80 81 108 372
Ballots 713 610 585 967 2875

Posted by Terry Miller on Apr 14th, 2010 and filed under Featured. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response by filling following comment form or trackback to this entry from your site

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