No Municipal Election for Loma Linda This Year

In the last six years, the Loma Linda City Council has voted not to hold a municipal election for a third time. Even though there were three seats up for election, no one came forward to challenge the incumbent members that were elected in 2010. Oviduct Popescu a member of the current council has said “There isn’t any real pressing concerns that would excite someone to run for a council seat, at the current time the residents of the the City seem content on how the city is running.” On March 22 the council canceled the 2016 election and by doing so saved the City $10,000 for not holding the election. Floyd Peterson, former Loma Linda mayor, said it best, “I guess there’s just nobody in the town interested in getting involved,” and this statement rang true because on March 22 at the council meeting there was no one else in the chamber and zero members of the public showed up to speak. Peterson further said, “There just aren’t enough big issues going on in town—like there were in the early 2000s which was centered around development and growth. Maybe if you saw some major housing or commercial project coming to town in the near future—you might see more activity from residents in the political arena.” At the conclusion of the meeting the council decided to give themselves raises and it passed; the council members hadn’t had a raise in approximately 10 years. Loma Linda residents shouldn’t completely go to sleep, because elected officials could become more self-serving if they believe no one is watching.