Letters to the Editor: Catherine Alvarez recall effort

Dear Editor:

It is time for Downey to regain its moral compass and recall Councilwoman Catherine Alvarez who got elected by obscuring her past.

I ran an export company in Downey for 34 years and any time I hired a new employee, I looked at his/her criminal and credit records. Ms. Alvarez would not have met my standards for employees and would never had been hired.

I believe also that Ms. Alvarez would not have been elected to the council if her criminal record of shoplifting, welfare fraud and arrest warrants had been known prior to the election.

Downey election rules must be changed to require full disclosure of credit and criminal records for all candidates for office to prevent any future convicted felons from running for public office.

Jorge Montero
Downey

Dear Editor:

Some folks like democracy when it goes their way, but will work to subvert it when they don’t like the result. The sickening events of January 6, and the continuing efforts to undermine our Presidential election system, are the most glaring example of this.

The recall effort to unseat Governor Newsom is another example. I get it; he’s arrogant, reeks elitism, and has extremely expensive haircuts. But he implemented policies early on and consistently that have resulted in California’s success compared to much of the nation. Still, his opponents engineered an undemocratic recall that wound up pitting extremist Larry Elder against him.

Elder vowed to undo the policies that have led to our success. Over half a year and millions of dollars were wasted on this effort, which luckily did not succeed.

And now here we have another recall effort, this time an attempt to unseat City Councilwoman Catherine Alvarez. Like Newsom, she is a controversial figure. She has in the past had run-ins with the law, for which she paid fines and did community service as required by her sentence. During the campaign, her supporters demonstrated loudly in front of city officials’ houses, which I think is wrong. And I am not a partisan. Her opponent in the City Council election, Eric Pierce, is a friend. I proudly posted two of his campaign signs in my yard during the campaign.

But the thing is, Alvarez was duly elected. And it should be noted that perhaps she represents a segment of the Downey population that feels a bit alienated by what we could call “the establishment.” She is younger. She knows the pain of being evicted from apartments. Her supporters are enthusiastic and boisterous. A pro-recall website says about one gathering, “Several Downey residents complained of loud drum noises and chanting . . . in the late afternoon hours.” Not evening, late afternoon. There are times these days when I would love to hear a little drumming and chanting . . . some say it’s good for the soul.

Bottom line: Alvarez’s constituents are real people. Some of them have real-world problems that the more fortunate of us might like to ignore or forget. We should try to understand what these problems are, where Alvarez is coming from, and what she has to contribute.

Ms. Alvarez was legitimately elected. I have met her at public events in her role as a responsible elected official. She is trying to do her job. She is not creating turmoil or robbing the coffers at city hall. And there will be democratic elections in the future for those who want someone else. Let’s save Downey the expense, and turmoil, of another needless and divisive recall.

Frank Kearns
Downey