The backlash from the January 2023 creative sacking of Yucaipa City Manager Ray Casey hit with resounding intensity on November 5, as one of the three members of the city council who supported that controversial action was removed from office that day. While a second of the city leaders who participated in the backroom maneuver to oust Casey did manage to gain reelection, the councilman who represented the third potential crucial vote to effectuate that highly polarizing move opted out of running for reelection entirely.
As of yesterday afternoon at 4 p.m. 2,389 or 66.83 percent of 3,575 voters in District 1 who turned out to vote or had submitted mail-in ballots that have been counted thus far endorsed the recall of Councilman Matt Garner, less than two years into the term he was elected to just two years ago in the November 2022 election. 1,186 or 33.17 voted against removing him. A simple majority was all that was needed to end his tenure in office.
Mayor Justin Beaver, who was exposed as the ringleader in the successful plot to get rid of Casey and replace him with Mann, was able to withstand the widespread anger getting rid of Casey provoked within the city’s District 4, with 1,445 or 49.12 percent of the 2,942 votes counted so far in his favor. Kristine Mohler and Gordon Renshaw, who ran as alternatives to Beaver, polled 1,155 votes or 39.26 percent and 341 or 11.59 percent, respectively.
In District 3, where Councilman Bobby Duncan, recognizing that the support he had shown in the effort to send Casey into retirement was greatly complicating his prospect of being reelected, chose to not seek reelection. Three candidates – Judy Woolsey, Gigi Hanna and Lyle Vick vied to fill the District 3 post, with Wolsey ultimately with prevailing by capturing 851 or 36.03 percent of the 2,362 votes case, a relatively narrow victory over Hanna, with 762 votes or 32.26 percent and Vick polling 747 voter endorsements or 31.63 percent. Woolsey’s status within an important subset of the Yucaipa community and her dependence on former councilman and one-time state Assemblyman Brett Granlund for a substantial degree of her political orientation is likely to result in conflicting approaches in dealing with Mann and the legacy of Casey’s forced departure.
The question now is whether the sole remnant of the now defunct ruling coalition that jettisoned Casey and put Chris Mann in his place – Beaver – will be able to parlay Woolsey’s support and convince either or both Jon Thorp, who was reelected to his District 5 council post unopposed on Tuesday and who voted against sacking Casey, and Chris Venable, who likewise did not go along with cashiering Casey, that staying the course with Mann is what the city should do.
A relative factor in Mann’s favor is that on Tuesday the city’s voters overwhelmingly passed Measure S, a one-cent sales tax override, with 9,605 or 59.75 percent of the 16,065 total votes in favor of the increase and 6,460 or 40.21 percent opposed. Four years ago, under Casey, the city’s voters by an even more substantial margin – 64 percent to 36 percent – rejected an identical sales tax hike.
Since Yucaipa city officials are claiming that the city government is in sharp financial decline, having sustained a $2 million budget deficit in 2023-24 and running a $7.2 million deficit in the current 2024-25 fiscal year.
It is Mann’s contention that Casey was able to manage his way through Yucaipa’s fiscal challenges in 2021-22 and 2022-23 only on the basis of $8 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds that came the city’s way as a consequence of the federal government’s largesse in the face of the COVID crisis.
A substantial fraction of the Yucaipa population – one that is highly vocal, motivated and dynamic – remains sore over the Casey canning. What is unclear is whether the council as it is to be fleshed out, will see more value in Mann’s ability to prevent Yucaipa’s ship of state from foundering on the shoals of bankruptcy than liability in having him present as a constant reminder of what a substantial percentage of the city sees as a crooked backdoor maneuver.
Curiously, unlike in most recall elections, the recall question against Garner did not carry with it a parallel election to determine his replacement. The election is due to be certified on December 5, at which time the council will have no choice other than to adopt a finding that Garner is no longer one of its members. With the District 1 seat open, the council would have 60 days to appoint his replacement or call for a special election.