La Mirada~In a race too close to call, all ballots will be recounted in the La Mirada City Council race along with 326 additional ballots not yet counted.

There are five candidates running for two open seats.

When vote counting ended last night late, Pauline Deal led all candidates with 1,693 votes. For second place however, Steve Keithly leads Andrew Sarega by only nine votes, 1,300 to 1,291. There are still 326 provisional ballots to be counted today, so the race for second had to wait.

However, it was announced this morning, ALL ballots will be recounted today, before the provisional, due to mechanical issues experienced last night.

The recount will take place today at 2 p.m. at City Hall.

The ballot-counting was plagued with problems last night, forcing the city to use a back-up machine, delaying the process.

Deputy City Manager Anne Haraksin told us this morning that the firm they use, Martin & Chapman advised them to recount, “They told us that due to the race being so close it would be a good idea to run all ballots through a machine again.”

She said ballot operators provided by the company experienced problems throughout the evening.

Martin & Chapman is an election and consultation service company based in Anaheim. According to their website, they “are the primary election consultant and supplier for the 65+ cities who conduct their own elections in Los Angeles County.”

Today, the firm will bring two different machines to count the ballots.

Haraksin reiterated, “No candidates contacted us to demand a recount, we are strictly going by the advice given to us by Martin & Chapman.”

After a second machine was brought in last night, and some issues still persisted, Haraksin said, “We think it might be some sort of power problem.”  She said that issue will be resolved today as well before the recount.

In a different twist, the provisional ballots have not been counted at all yet, and will probably decide the race for second.

Those uncounted vote-by-mail (VBM) ballots will be tallied around 4 p.m. today, shortly after the recount.

173 of those are ballots received at city hall Monday after the city inspected the initial VBM ballots and sealed the box at a decided time, a normal process, said Haraksin. After the boxes were sealed, the city received additional ballots by residents at City Hall, as well as additional VBM ballots picked up from the P.O. Box at the Post Office, again, a normal process.

The remaining 153 VBM ballots are from residents who applied to vote-by-mail, who then decided to drop off their ballots at different polling locations throughout town.

Haraksin said the 173 additional VBM ballots received after the box-sealing is the most ever for the city, probably attributed to the fact that more La Mirada residents chose to vote by mail this time around.

She said 2,000 more people voted this way than the last election two years ago.

As of know, Mayor Gabe Garcia has captured 855 votes with Randy Gray grabbing 725.

UPDATE: Ballots not yet counted is now up to 391 with the addition of 63 additional true provisional ballots. City offiicials have been unable to get a machine to work properly at City Hall. The latest is all ballots from last night are to be counted by hand, and then the 391 additional VBM and provisional ballots will be counted immediately following.

La Mirada~Wow, talk about suspense.

Two candidates will have to wait until tomorrow to see who captures the final seat for the La Mirada City Council.

There are 323 provisional ballots that still need to be counted. The will be counted tomorrow at City Hall around 3 p.m.

153 of them are vote-by-mail ballots that were dropped off at precincts instead of being mailed-they are still valid. The remaining are also still valid but were not originally counted because of technicalities, but again, are still legitimate.

Pauline Deal has easily captured first place with 1,693 votes so far.

The second and final spot is too close to call and is up for grabs with Steve Keithly receiving 1,300 votes to Andrew Sarega’s 1,291. Keithly, trailing Sarega most of the night, by less than 100 votes surged in the last few precincts announced to overcome Sarega.

A broken ballot-counting machine delayed the vote.

More coming.

Prevent Burglaries-The City of La Mirada saw an unusual spike in residential burglaries in the month of January. Hard economic times are upon us and with that come a chance that crimes of opportunity will rise due to people being out of work and desperate to make money. La Mirada's Public Safety Team relies on you to help them prevent these types of crimes from occurring in your neighborhood.

Residential Burglary-A residential burglary was reported on the 15100 block of Alondra Blvd. Various jewelry was stolen from the residence. A burglary also occurred on the 15900 block of Dalmatian Ave. Electronics and cash were taken from the home.

Vehicle Burglary-A vehicle burglary was reported on the 15000 block of Rosalita Dr. Various electronics were stolen from the vehicle.

Grand Theft Vehicle-Two vehicle thefts were reported last week. A Chevrolet Cruze was stolen on the 15800 block of Imperial Hwy. A late model Honda Civic was also stolen on the 14000 block of Avenida Espana. The vehicle was subsequently recovered by deputies on the 12800 block of Oakwood Ln. An attempted vehicle theft was reported on the 14700 block of Crosswood Rd. Mail was stolen from the vehicle.

La Mirada~There are five candidates running for La Mirada City Council. The election is scheduled for March 5th. In the race is Councilwoman Pauline Deal who was appointed to replace Susan Tripp in the summer of 2011; Mayor Gabe Garcia, seeking a second four-year term; Planning Commissioner and businessman Steve Keithly; Paramount Unified Schools Administrator Randy Gray; and Newport Beach Police Officer Andrew Sarega.

The Kiwanis Club of La Mirada has invited all of the candidates to speak at their weekly meeting, and all have accepted. We will provide a brief snippet and some insight to each of the candidate’s speeches.

The schedule is as follows: Andrew Sarega-January 23rd; Gabe Garcia-January 30th; Randy Gray-February 6th; Steve Keithly-February 13th; and Pauline Deal-February 20th.

The following is the last of a five-part series in which we hope to provide you a snippet and some insight into each of the candidate’s speeches. As of now, there has been no candidates forum scheduled for the community.

The Kiwanis Club of La Mirada and the La Mirada Blog are not political organizations. These reports are for informational purposes only and do not reflect the views or opinions of the Kiwanis Club of La Mirada or the La Mirada Blog Network.

Pauline Deal was the final speaker of the five candidates for the office of La Mirada City Council. She thanked the members for inviting her and was privileged to be here. Describing her personal background, she informed members that her husband’s stepfather was Cary Mayer, a leader and respected member of this club in the past who lived and breathed La Mirada Kiwanis.  Pauline’s children, now grown and married, called him Grandpa. Pauline has been a resident of La Mirada for 33 years, her husband, Jeff, for 45 years.

Deal’s background of service in La Mirada included working as a volunteer with the La Mirada Baseball Association, as Treasurer, Board Member and Coach with the La Mirada Girls’ Softball Association, as Trustee with the Southeast Regional Occupation Program, and as Trustee with the Greater Los Angeles County Vector Control District, a position she currently hold.

She described her more than 15 years of experience as a Norwalk-La Mirada Unified School District Board member as an excellent venue to gain valuable experience in overseeing administrative and employee issues, as well as infrastructure and budget issues. In addition, during her tenure as a La Mirada City Councilwoman she has worked consistently for the benefit of the residents she has served.

Crime in La Mirada is at its lowest point in more than 20 years, and has decreased by 37.7 percent since 2005.  Deal is determined to maintain her dedication to public safety.

She expressed pride that La Mirada continues to have a balanced budget despite the revenue losses due to the recession and the unprecedented millions that Sacramento has taken away from the city. However, this status does not come without a price. To maintain Public safety as the highest priority and to spare the public from significant program reductions, full time staff has been reduced from 97 to 71 positions  Hourly staffing has been reduced by a similar amount and the remaining City staff has assumed the workload.

There are two spots open with five candidates running in this year’s city council election. Of the five, we believe there are three that are viable.

Two of them are not ready for prime-time, Randy Gray and Andrew Sarega.

Gray, a very nice guy, does not have enough exposure, involvement in the community, or City Hall insight. It is not like he hasn’t done anything however-he is past president of the La Mirada NJB (National Junior Basketball) and has done many other wonderful things for the community.

Sarega also has very little involvement in town, is ill-informed and much too negative. We see Sarega’s Dad around town more than we see Sarega, spieling a bunch of rhetoric, and basically sticking his nose where it doesn’t belong, irritating people, and making a mockery of the process without offering any real ideas or solutions for current issues.

That leaves Steve Keithly, Pauline Deal, and current Mayor Gabe Garcia.

Keithly is refreshing for La Mirada politics. With a strong business background and currently sitting on the city planning commission, it is indeed stimulating to hear someone from within the “organization” indicating we might want to consider doing a couple of things differently. We believe him.

By far, the number one issue or concern La Mirada residents have is the condition of our shopping centers.

Keithly speaks of finally addressing the needs of our dilapidated centers using whatever methods it takes-once and for all-instead of falling back on the same old excuses past council members have been using for decades. We believe him.

So that leaves Garcia and Deal for the last spot.

Last month, Garcia was involved in a single-car incident on Tacuba Drive, which resulted in some mangled parked cars and a DUI arrest.

There is a fine line whether you believe he should have resigned immediately or not.

Given time to think about it, we believe everyone makes mistakes and in La Mirada, Garcia deserves a second chance. We all should live in glass houses.

The current inexperienced and unmotivated city council needs his leadership and especially his experience in local government.

Deal, is a wonderful person, is more than capable and has served the community well, but she might be in the right race at the wrong time. Her appointment to council in 2011 for the departed Susan Tripp, may be hurting her, giving the perception she has not earned the position.

We believe La Mirada residents are looking for something a little bit different in the characteristics of their council members-being a little less submissive and a little more assertive.

We recommend you vote for Steve Keithly and Gabe Garcia for La Mirada City Council

La Mirada~There are five candidates running for La Mirada City Council. The election is scheduled for March 5^th. In the race is Councilwoman Pauline Deal who was appointed to replace Susan Tripp in the summer of 2011; Mayor Gabe Garcia, seeking a second four-year term; Planning Commissioner and businessman Steve Keithly; Paramount Unified Schools Administrator Randy Gray; and Newport Beach Police Officer Andrew Sarega.

The Kiwanis Club of La Mirada has invited all of the candidates to speak, at their weekly meeting, and all have accepted. We will provide a brief snippet and some insight to each of the candidate’s speeches.

The schedule is as follows: Andrew Sarega-January 23rd; Gabe Garcia-January 30th; Randy Gray-February 6^th; Steve Keithly-February 13^th; and Pauline Deal-February 20^th.

The following is the first of a five-part series in which we hope to provide you a snippet and some insight into each of the candidate’s speeches. As of now, there has been no candidates forum scheduled for the community.

The Kiwanis Club of La Mirada and the La Mirada Blog are not political organizations. These reports are for informational purposes only and do not reflect the views or opinions of the Kiwanis Club of La Mirada or the La Mirada Blog Network.

Steve Keithly, the fourth of the five candidates for a position on the La Mirada City Council, was guest speaker this morning. He expressed pleasure at being invited to be here at Kiwanis in a city that welcomes the democratic election process.

Steve has been married to wife Kathy for 35 years, has 6 children – one final one in college at this time about ready to come off of the Keithly payroll! 5 others are married, and there are 5 grand children. Steve attended BYU and the family lived in Garden Grove before moving to La Mirada. He holds a Masters Degree in Business Administration.

Keithly was called to serve in 2003 as Bishop in his LDS Church. Susan Tripp invited Steve to meet with her while she was serving as Mayor and the families became good friends.  His wife Kathy was invited to serve on Public Service Commission but, since he was Bishop at the time, he was unable to accept an appointment himself.

La Mirada~It's that time of year again! Can you smell the fresh cut grass?

La Mirada Little League will hold its annual Opening Day Ceremonies this Saturday, March 2nd at the Behringer Athletic Facilities.

There will be a ceremony recognizing the 10th anniversary of the La Mirada Little League Junior Team that won the Little League World Series in their division in 2003.

The ceremony begins at 8 a.m. with a full slate of games following.

The Kiwanis Club of La Mirada will be there serving up their pancake breakfast on their world-famous rotating grill from 9-11 a.m.

La Mirada~There are five candidates running for La Mirada City Council. The election is scheduled for March 5^th. In the race is Councilwoman Pauline Deal who was appointed to replace Susan Tripp in the summer of 2011; Mayor Gabe Garcia, seeking a second four-year term; Planning Commissioner and businessman Steve Keithly; Paramount Unified Schools Administrator Randy Gray; and Newport Beach Police Officer Andrew Sarega.

The Kiwanis Club of La Mirada has invited all of the candidates to speak at their weekly meeting, and all have accepted. We will provide a brief snippet and some insight to each of the candidate’s speeches.

The schedule is as follows: Andrew Sarega-January 23rd; Gabe Garcia-January 30th; Randy Gray-February 6^th; Steve Keithly-February 13^th; and Pauline Deal-February 20^th.

The following is the first of a five-part series in which we hope to provide you a snippet and some insight into each of the candidate’s speeches. As of now, there has been no candidates forum scheduled for the community.

The Kiwanis Club of La Mirada and the La Mirada Blog are not political organizations. These reports are for informational purposes only and do not reflect the views or opinions of the Kiwanis Club of La Mirada or the La Mirada Blog Network.

Randy Gray was welcomed to the podium as a candidate in a field of five on the ballot for the coming election to City Council.  He expressed thanks for the breakfast where he sat next to his dentist who was close by.

Gray said that he received his Doctorate at USC and lived 20 years in the City of La Mirada.  His wife Burgess attended Gardenhill School.  After they met and married they resided 1 year in Chino Hills and then returned to La Mirada where they were anxious to live when the price was right.  They have now resided  in The Landmark area for 13 years.  They have three children – 19, 16 and 15. His oldest is involved  in TV and movie  productions, his younger daughter and son are high school students.  It is time, he believes, to enter into public service by a seat on the City Council.

Gray  has had experience with the sport’s organizations in La Mirada for many years, such as AYSO  and Little League. He understands the challenge his is facing with 2 openings out of 5 council seats at this time, but this is his opportunity to make himself known in the community.  His children are old enough to understand and appreciate his efforts and life that it will bring to the household. His current involvement is in public education.  He taught at Paramount High School and eventually moved to the central district office in the area of finances where he joined in responsibility for a 10 million dollar budget. He experienced considerable decision-making and preparing data.  Between raising children, his professional life and his personal experience, his common sense ability is strong.