Established practice for Redwood City Council to Break The Law?

I attended the Redwood City Council meeting last night, Monday September 23rd, for other reasons than what I'm here to talk about here.

For background, there is a  citywide election this fall, and among the issues being voted on, are the three open positions on the City Council. There are several candidates running for these positions that have opened up, among them, Corrine Rankin and several others.

Anyway, I was interested to hear the results of Corrin Rankin's lawsuit against the City of Redwood City to force them to follow election law.

Corrin's suit asked Redwood City to change the title that another candidate listed himself as being, in his current job.  Her suit, which she won, also asked the City to reimburse Corrin for her legal fees in this case, $6200.

In winning her lawsuit, she forced the City to list another candidate as "Businessman" instead of "Commissioner", and follow the election law on this practice.

The council voted to approve the City paying Corrine her legal fees, but under protest. 

She was denounced by several members of the City Council last night, on the record, for filing this, as they put it, "frivilous lawsuit". They said that listing someone's name on the ballot in a volunteer (unpaid) position of "Commissioner" was "established practice" and claimed to be disappointed that Corrin wasted taxpayers money by asking for repayment of her $6200 in legal fees in this case.

They claimed that the candidate would have voluntarily changed his title on the ballot if she simply asked him to do so.  Maybe so, but the City was breaking election law on allowing him to list himself this way, as a Commissioner of some kind, again, an unpaid volunteer position. Yes he did good by volunteering for this position. That is not the issue of her lawsuit.  If you are unpaid for that position, then you cannot be listed this way on the ballot, period.!

The law clearly states how a candidate is to be listed on the ballot. So this Council refuses to follow established election laws?  WoW, that is so very wrong.!!!

What I think the City Council members were saying was that Correine was not welcome to be in their Clique of a City Council, and that they enjoy breaking the law on this City Council on a regular basis; and woe to any candidate that takes on this clique of crooked politicians.  Is is really established practice for this Council to break the law?  I guess so, because now they have plainly stated it on the record in public.

Please note that I may not have spelled out the legal technicalities of this lawsuit correctly, but honestly, I'm a Computer Systems Admin, and not a lawyer.

I am very disappointed with the crooked behavior of this City Council. All the incumbents on this Council need to be voted OUT in this coming election this Fall.!

Thank you for reading,


Phil Bigelow
Resident of Docktown Marina
Redwood City