Campaign to recall majority of Westminster’s city council advances with submission of signatures

Westminster Mayor Tri Ta.

(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

By Anh DoStaff Writer 

Nov. 14, 2019

10:46 AM

The campaign to recall a majority of the Westminster City Council advanced this week, with organizers claiming to have enough signatures for a ballot measure to unseat Mayor Tri Ta and colleagues Kimberly Ho and Chi Charlie Nguyen.
Opponents of the trio believe that “they are corrupt, they work for themselves and not those they represent, and that their unethical actions are crippling the city,” said David Johnson, an organizer of Westminster United, the group initiating the recall effort.
He said group members submitted nearly 10,900 signatures targeting Ta to Westminster’s city clerk on Monday, along with 10,800 signatures against Ho and 10,700 against Nguyen — all of which must be verified by the Orange County Registrar of Voters.
Westminster United was required to collect a minimum of 8,736 signatures, making up 20% of the city’s registered voters.
“We’re ecstatic,” Johnson said. “With recalls, there’s a lot of big talk, but in the U.S. or in California, to get even 50% to show up on election day is a huge challenge. But we well exceeded our signature goal, and we turned it in very early.”
Ho, Nguyen and Ta have accused organizers of fraud and, through attorney Lan Quoc Nguyen and a group called the Committee Against Recall, issued a statement denouncing the effort.
“Instead of building for a truly united Westminster, recall proponents have caused deep political division and disharmony in the city, forcing the potential expenditure of hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayers’ money to deal with this recall, funds that could be used for seniors’ social programs or youth activities,” the statement read.
The statement went on to say that the trio of council members has asked the Orange County district attorney’s office for a “thorough investigation into this entire matter,” including what recall opponents referred to as “the high number of complaints from Westminster residents of alleged deception and fraud in the signature gathering process.”
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