Former Councilman Clarence Shaw resigned his seat on the Monrovia City Council Thursday, the day after the filing period closed for candidates to run for two open council seats in April.
Shaw sent an email to City Manager Laurie Lile Thursday afternoon explaining that he was resigning effective immediately, Councilman Tom Adams said.
Shaw said in a telephone interview with Patch Tuesday that he had pulled the paperwork to run for re-election and intended to reclaim his seat. But, according to city records, Shaw did not file the paperwork by Wednesday's deadline.
He has not returned several calls requesting comment on this story.
A major in the U.S. Army Reserves, Shaw has been deployed in Washington state since July 2011. His seat was filled on an interim basis in Dec. 2011 by Larry Spicer, who has filed to run for one of the two open seats on the City Council in April.
Adams said Thursday that he believes Shaw never intended to run for re-election.
"My understanding is that Clarence Shaw has a new home in Washington state and a new family in Washington state and it appears as if it was never his intention to return to Monrovia," Adams said.
In a comment on Patch, Adams alleged that Shaw's statements about his candidacy were intended to benefit the electoral chances of Spicer.
"The really sad part is that this big lie was apparently done to help Mr. Spicer retain the seat that he didn't feel he could get on his own," Adams wrote. "We all know that incumbancy is powerful and had the public known that two imcumbants were not running there would have been more candiates filing."
Spicer said in an interview Friday that Adams' allegations are "absolutely wrong."
"Clarence had planned on running all the way up to when he made the decision that he made," Spicer said. "All of this about Clarence and I working together, that's absolutely untrue."
Since only Spicer and one other candidate--local attorney Alexander Blackburn--filed to run for the open council seats, the council could decide to cancel the election and appoint people to the two open seats.
Cyrus, the Shaw family's troubles are private and should remain so. Their children deserve to be treated with respect and care, as do all the children in our city. Your insistence on dragging your partisan views into the discussion is not helpful.
.......There SHOULD BE an ELECTION. Costs cannot be an excuse not to hold the election, given the laissez faire attitude by Staff regarding Family Festival unpaid Franchise Fees! .........IDEALLY the Filing Period should be extended for more Candidates . ........NO REPLACEMENT should be appointed to fill Shaw's term, at this point . Thank you for your consideration of this point of view....
.......There SHOULD BE an ELECTION. Costs cannot be an excuse not to hold the election, given the laissez faire attitude by Staff regarding Family Festival unpaid Franchise Fees! .........IDEALLY the Filing Period should be extended for more Candidates . ........NO REPLACEMENT should be appointed to fill Shaw's term, at this point . Thank you for your consideration of this point of view....
The cost will be just under $60,000. I don't know why the filing period should be extended - the dates were well publicized, and two candidates managed to file on time. Reopening it now because a council member took it upon himself to create trouble doesn't seem especially productive to me. Why does it matter whether there's a replacement for Shaw for the next three months or not? Spicer seemed to be doing a perfectly satisfactory job. What has changed? What do the financial troubles of the Family Festival franchise have to do with any of this? That's a separate issue.
If the Staff does not feel the urgency to collect all Past Due Accounts, why should somehow correcting this very "Bad Show" of open and honest Election practices be by-passed by sighting finances. Better to be satisfied that all possible collusion concerns have a remedy.
Quite a nasty Liberal Mouth Cathy "Cathy McCallum @LiberalCat "Sam Alito raises money for conservative causes, says it's not a big deal. Time to impeach the little ****** and his wingnut friends." Now we understand your defending Shaw and Spicer As for the Shaw family's troubles, perhaps Clarence should have not done what he did, but because he and Spicer are card carrying Liberals you defend their bad behavior toward a whole community of families and children. Liberals are becoming more sick as the years pass.
Cathy on Twitter https://twitter.com/LiberalCat
Easy to do!
I happened to hear one of Mr. Spicer's neighbors speak to the City Council soon after Spicer's "temporary" appointment. The neighbor was visibly shaking but spoke with reason, and calmly. He seemed credible. What he reported was outrageous: bullying behavior by Mr. Spicer perpetrated upon his neighbors and even upon his own family. As a result of hearing that report, I emailed one of the city officers and suggested the claims were too serious to ignore and that they should be investigated. I received a response and statement of agreement that the claims were too serious to ignore. I never saw or heard any follow up discussion and whether an investigation was done or not, Mr. Spicer remained in his seat. I see that as a failure of the Council. Now, with Mr. Shaw's and Mr. Spicer's apparent maneuvering to keep Spicer on the Council we have only the "write in" option to ensure Mr. Spicer is no longer representing the people and the city of Monrovia. Monrovia voters don't know all of this and they need to know it. The "write-in" candidate, Mr. Robert Parry and his supporters and any others who find Mr. Spicer's reputation disqualifying him as a viable candidate for our City Council, need to get out on the streets and give Monrovia voters the facts. What can legally be done should be done, and quickly. A very concerned 35 year Monrovia resident.