L.A.’s 11th Council District Councilmember Mike Bonin announced victory on Tuesday over a mysterious coalition of Westside neighbors who recently turned in thousands of signatures in an attempt to hold a special election to recall the councilmember. The special election would have been slated ahead of the already regularly scheduled November, 2022 Council District Election for the 11th District, which stretches from LAX to the Pacific Palisades.

Bonin, beaming in an Instagram-posted video to followers, stated, “Hey everybody, we just got some great news. The recall has failed.” He continued, “This effort by people who are opposed to homeless housing, and paid right-wing political operatives to throw me out of office, is dead. It is not going forward. It is a relief and it is an end to this abuse of the electoral process in L.A.”

According to a release by the Office of the City Clerk, proponents of Bonin’s recall had filed their petition to recall the councilmember on November 10, which gave the City Clerk 30 days after acceptance of signatures to verify them and measure if they had met 27,317 required to place the measure on a special election ballot. The group fell short by 1,352 valid signatures, landing at 25,965.

In a subsequent release, Jinny Pak of the Clerk’s Election Division expanded on the characteristics of the signatures, providing the following:

Total Signatures Submitted: 39,271
Total Invalid Signatures: 13,306

Among Invalid Signatures:
• Duplicate within Petition: 2,823
• Invalid Signatures: 1,581
• Invalid Registration: 380
• Not Registered: 3,543
• Wrong District: 1,323
• Invalid Address: 2,139
• Invalid Circulator Affidavits & Other: 1,517

Total Valid Signatures: 25,965

Bonin, who is seeking his third and final term representing the 11th Council District, is under no illusions about what he’s facing. He continued in his video release, “Let’s be clear: this does not mark the end of the fight about how we respond to homelessness. Housing and services end homelessness. That’s what works. It’s proven. It’s smart. It’s effective. It’s compassionate. It’s what I believe, and it’s what I will fight for. The people behind this recall, and people who are challenging me politically, they want to rely on failed strategies that push people from block to block or throw them in jail. It’s expensive. It doesn’t work, and it makes homelessness worse.”

Thus far, Bonin is the only council candidate who has filed financial disclosure paperwork required to run for Council Distrct 11 in 2022. Critics of Bonin site what they see as problems in his financial filing, including a claim that Bonin is listed on the deed of a property that his disclosure states is only owned by his husband, Sean Arian. They also question Arian, who lists the fair market value of his consulting business as between $10,000-$100,000, but lists Arian’s income as greater than $100,000. The critics do not explain that the fair market value of a business entity is not necessarily equal to that of employee salaries, but what the business could fairly sell for in an open market.

Nevertheless, Bonin could be facing strong public disatisfaction with his job performance despite the failure of recall efforts. Westside Voice will continue to follow events in Council District 11.