Pleasanton Mayoral Candidate Sues City Over Rejection of Ballot Statement

PLEASANTON, CA — A longtime Pleasanton resident who is running for mayor in the upcoming election is taking Pleasanton City Clerk Karen Diaz to court this week.

Julie Testa is asking the court to to compel City Clerk Karen Diaz to include Testa's candidate’s statement on the sample election ballot, which will be sent to registered voters in October.

Testa says her required paperwork was submitted by the Aug. 12 deadline, however, Testa alleges City Clerk Karen Diaz turned away her for not having completed the submission of a financial disclosure Form 700 Statement of Economic Interests online prior to her appointment to file with the clerk.

According to Testa, she attended a Planning Commission meeting the evening of Aug. 10. It was at that meeting that she decided she had to run for mayor. The next day, Testa pulled her filing paperwork and says she spent the next 24 hours getting the paperwork completed and prepared.

When she showed up to her 4:30 p.m. appointment at the Pleasanton City Clerk’s office on Aug. 12, she says she had all of her fully completed paperwork with her but asked City Clerk Karen Diaz to check her online submission of the Form 700 Statement of Economic Interests, which never gave Testa a confirmation during the submission process. Upon checking for the form, Diaz allegedly told Testa she was not able to locate the submission. Testa asked her for help getting the form to submit correctly and was refused.

Testa said she asked to file the rest of her candidacy paperwork while at the office and offered to go across the street to finish submitting the Form 700 Statement of Economic Interests online after completely filing. She said the city clerk refused.

Testa, who was accompanied by her lawyer and campaign treasurer, Matt Morrison, went across the street to Morrison’s office and completed the form submission. Once she returned to the Clerk’s Office to finish filing her paperwork, she discovered she had left behind her hard copy of the Candidate’s Statement, which had also been submitted online.

“At 4:30 p.m., I had everything I needed, including the hard copy and electronic form of candidate statement, so legally she could have filed my papers at that time,” Testa told Patch.

Testa’s paperwork was filed but without the hard copy of the candidate’s statement, only her name will appear on the sample ballot. The candidate’s statement shares information about the candidate.

According to Testa, the e-form version of her statement was available to the clerk’s office online and a hard copy of the form is not legally required at the time of filing.

"The law is clear," said Morrison said in a statement,"There is nothing in the Political Reform Act that requires a Form 700 to be filed prior to a candidate's nomination papers."

Morrison says Diaz turning Testa away for the missing form cost valuable time for Testa when she discovered her candidate statement had been left behind at Morrison's office.

"The City Clerk left us with no choice but to turn to the courts," said Morrison. “Testa, as required by California Rules of Court, has informed Pleasanton's City Clerk and the Alameda County Registrar of Voters her intention to seek an order to shorten time until when the superior court will conduct a hearing on Testa's petition. Testa hopes the matter can be heard quickly. If the court cannot decide until after the voter pamphlets have gone to press, then any decision on the merits of Testa's argument is moot.”

Pleasanton City Attorney Dan Sodergren did not give comment on the case against the city clerk.

“I am disappointed that rather than providing the full service support to this complicated process, that is given at the Registrar of Voters in Oakland, our city clerk’s office created unnecessary barriers,” Testa said. “Rather than working out a reasonable solution as simple as a ten cent copy or accepting the online submitted statement, as is done at the ROV, the city has hired an outside attorney that is costing taxpayers an unknown expense. Tomorrow will decide if the voters get to see my statement.”

The hearing will be held in Hayward on Thursday at 9:00 a.m. in Superior Court. The deadline for printing the sample ballots is Friday.

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