SATURDAY APRIL 14, 2012

VOLUME 6 NO 15

Koerber, Capoccia and Harabedian Elected

MacGillivray Bid for Re-election and UUT Measures Fail


By Susan Henderson

On Tuesday, 35% of the registered 
voters in Sierra Madre turned out 
to elect three new faces for the City 
Council and solidly denounce efforts 
to extend the current Utility 
User Tax measures. 

Before the election the fate of the 
UUT could not be predicted and 
thus it was no great surprise that 
it lost, many Sierra Madreans were 
surprised when incumbent councilwoman 
and two time Mayor 
Mary Ann MacGillivray did not retain 
her council seat. 

A number of former MacGillivray 
supporters did not vote for her in 
this election citing her participation 
in bypassing then Mayor Pro 
Tem Joe Mosca in the normal rotation 
of council members to Mayor 
in 2008 and 2009. MacGillivray’s 
vote allowed Kurt Zimmerman to 
serve in Mosca’s place and MacGillivray, 
who had just been sworn in 
to the council, became Mayor Pro 
Tem and the following year Mayor. 
Finally, after the 2010 council race, 
Mosca became the first openly gay 
Mayor of Sierra Madre. 

Chris Koerber, who ran against 
Colin Braudrick and garnered more 
votes than any other candidate despite 
an evolving controversy over 
his failure to clearly articulate his 
association with the Tea Party was 
elected to complete the unexpired 
term of Mosca, had to resign when 
his family moved to London. Of his 
victory Koerber says, “I am honored 
and humbled to be the people of Sierra 
Madre’s choice as city councilman 
for the two-year seat. This election 
came at an extremely important 
time for the city, and being selected 
by my fellow citizens shows that the 
city is ready for a councilman who 
will work for clarity, community, 
and economic accountability. “ He 
also congratulated his opponent, 
Colin Braudrick “for a well fought 
race”. Koerber was against the 
UUT measures.

John Harabedian, garnered the 
most votes in a five person race for 
two 4-year terms on the council. A 
native of Sierra Madre and new to 
politics, he says, “As kid growing up 
in Sierra Madre, I never imagined 
I would have the honor to serve on 
City Council. I am truly humbled 
and invigorated. Now it’s time to get 
to work.” John was in favor of the 
Utility User Tax measures.

And the surprise victory of the 
campaign, according to many ‘old 
timers’ to Sierra Madre politics was 
newcomer John Capoccia who 
beat out incumbent Mary Ann 
MacGillivray for a four year term 
on the council. “I’m honored to 
serve along side them as we all work 
to fulfill our respective commitments 
to preserve this great town for present 
and future generations.”

Uncontested Races

Richard Mays was re-elected to his 
old job of City Treasurer, a position 
he held from 2004-2008 and Nancy 
Shollenberger, who has been city 
clerk since 1984 was also re-elected. 
Both ran unopposed.

Turnout Still Low

There have been lots of speculation 
that this year’s election had a record 
turnout, however, those reports are 
not accurate.

According to the summary report 
issued by the City Clerk late Tuesday 
night, there are 7,766 registered 
voters in Sierra Madre of which less 
than half bothered to cast a vote. Of 
the 2,728 that did vote, the absentee 
ballots, (1,113) represented 40% 
of all votes cast. More voters cast 
absentee ballots this year than in 
the last 3 council elections. However, 
compared to the City Council 
race in 2010, in which 2,875 voters 
participated in the election, Sierra 
Madre continues to suffer from the 
same voter apathy as the rest of the 
country. 

None of the Above

 After initial election results were 
released to the public, several citizens 
contacted the Mountain Views 
News inquiring on the results of the 
“write in ballots”. Although the 
results shown on SMTV-3 did not 
indicate, there were additional categories 
of votes cast that included 
‘write-ins’. There were also several 
hundred “blank” ballots.

In this election there were 60 write 
in votes for various candidates. 
Most notably, one caller indicated 
that she cast votes for “former council 
persons Lisa Fowler, Rob Stockley 
and Enid Joffe, because, in my opinion, 
they really worked hard for the 
city.. I just wanted to make a statement 
about the kind of council persons 
these new people should be.”

The Final Tally

According to City Clerk Shollenberger, 
on “Tuesday, April 17, 2012 
at 10:00 a.m. we will have a manual 
tally of one precinct and we will 
count the verified ballots and provisional 
ballots received on election 
day. We will then have the final canvass 
of the election and approval of 
the Resolution on Tuesday, April 24, 
2012, at which time we will have our 
reorganization of the City Council.


Clockwise, left to right: Councilman-
elect John Capoccia, 2nd from the right 
and Bryan Horsman, Campaign Manager, 
Wife Marta, Me, and Erica Silva, 
Assistant Campaign Manager; Councilman 
Elect John Harabedian (top right) 
and Councilman-elect Chris Koerber.

Far left unverified results from 2012 and 
tally from 2010 election.

A retirement party on March 29 was 
attended by Sierra Madre Library staff, 
who celebrated Margaret Duran’s 46 
years of service to the Library. At 82 
years young, Margaret has been an 
active member of the community “for 
more years than she can remember.” In 
2009 she received the prestigious Sierra 
Madre George Maurer Lifetime Service 
and Volunteer Award in recognition of 
her many years of dedicated service to 
the City.

Margaret began her professional 
library career in Sierra Madre in 1966, 
after completing graduate courses 
in Library Science at Immaculate 
Heart University in Los Angeles. She 
quickly became known as a champion 
of literacy and for her unrivaled 
reference expertise. A committed 
library advocate, she frequently gave 
public “book talks” emphasizing the 
importance of reading, always alerting 
patrons to new and noteworthy library 
acquisitions. 

Margaret’s exemplary research, 
evaluation and cataloguing skills are 
indelibly “stamped” on the Library’s 
24,000 volumes of Reference and Non-
fiction works. Up until her retirement, 
she was responsible for selecting 
and maintaining the books in these 
collections.

Margaret is the author of several 
booklets on the history of Sierra Madre, 
including Sierra Madre Public Library: 
Our Story (1976), Sierra Madre Library 
1887-1987: A Centennial Celebration, 
and A Story of a Quilt, written in 1977 
when the Sierra Madre Historical 
Quilt was unveiled. The quilt project 
was one she helped conceive and 
coordinate, which was a two-year, 
community-wide effort celebrating the 
U.S Centennial. Sierra Madre citizens 
designed and sewed quilt squares 
representing the City’s organizations as 
well as scenes and qualities unique to 
the town. (continued on page 3)


SIERRA MADRE LIBRARIAN RETIRES


This Week’s Highlights:

EARTH DAY 2012 - Section B

The World Around Us

Arts & Entertainment

Opinion - Left Turn/Right Turn

Legal Notices

Good Food - Good Life

Sports

B

Pasadena/Altadena

Around San Gabriel Valley

Arcadia - Monrovia/Duarte

Education & Youth

Good Food - Good Life

ONE OF A KIND......Page A9

Architectural Tours at 
Pasadena’s Caltech

 A


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