(3/23/08) Editorial – Time for a Change

City Clerk Nancy Shollenberger responded to my e-mail asking if she would reimburse the City for expenses incurred due to her error on the Sample Ballot by saying that she would be making a public announcement at the Kiwanis candidate forum and the City Council meeting this Tuesday.  The implication is that Ms. Shollenberger will be announcing that she will reimburse the City for costs associated with the mistake she made on the sample ballot.  We’ll have to wait and see.  But it is appropriate that Ms. Shollenberger reimburse the City for the cost of fixing her mistake.  Other City Clerks have lost their jobs over similar issues.  But the costs as they stand today are a small part of what the City will have to pay if the loser of this election chooses to challenge it, which would be a very reasonable course of action in a situation like this.  So Ms. Shollenberger’s error has again exposed the City to potentially major expense, just as her error from 1993 to 2001 did, when she failed to make sure City ordinances had been published.  Two such major errors, along with other smaller ones through the years, indicate that the exemplary record Ms. Shollenberger claims, isn’t quite what it’s made out to be.  Ms. Shollenberger has worked long and hard for this City, but as the Pasadena Star News said in their City Clerk endorsement of Karma Bell, it’s time for a change.