Downey: A city in transition or free fall?

Photo by Pam Lane

DOWNEY — Now that the dust has mostly settled from last week’s primary elections, we can look ahead to the second half of 2022 and what’s in store for Downey.

There are a lot of moving parts, but we’ll do the best we can.

Mayor Blanca Pacheco is a candidate for state Assembly and has advanced to the November general election, where she will face Raul Ortiz Jr. As a Democrat in a heavily blue district, Pacheco is widely favored to beat Ortiz, a Republican.

Assuming Pacheco wins, she will resign her City Council seat, probably in mid to late November. There will be just under two years left on Pacheco’s term. The City Council will have the option of calling a special election to fill the vacancy (an expensive endeavor) or appointing someone themselves (far more likely).

Who will take over as Downey mayor? The most obvious answer is the mayor pro tem, Catherine Alvarez. But she’s the subject of an aggressive recall campaign and her political future is uncertain. If the recall campaign is successful in gathering the required signatures, and depending on when those signatures are turned in and verified, voters will decide if she should be recalled in a special election, either in November or the early spring.

If Alvarez is indeed recalled, there would be less than two years remaining on her term, meaning the City Council would again choose between another special election or appointing a replacement. We can be fairly confident the council would prefer to appoint Alvarez’s temporary stand-in.

Let’s look at the rest of the council. Councilwoman Claudia Frometa is up for re-election. Councilman Donald La Plante - who was appointed to replace Sean Ashton, who resigned earlier this year – is not expected to run, but never say never. Councilman Mario Trujillo will likely be named mayor pro tem in December, setting him up to serve as mayor in 2024, when he’s up for re-election.

Ok, so to recap:

Mayor Blanca Pacheco – expected to resign later this year if elected to Assembly
Mayor Pro Tem Catherine Alvarez – target of a recall
Councilwoman Claudia Frometa – up for re-election
Councilman Donald La Plante - not expected to run
Councilman Mario Trujillo - safe in office

It’s possible Downey could have four new council members by next spring. And that political instability will make it difficult for Downey to attract a quality city manager to replace Gilbert Livas, who leaves July 1. The City Council has hired an interim city manager, Mark Scott, who is highly regarded and will do a fine job in the meantime. But he will be commuting from Fresno (yes, Fresno) and is on a strict hourly limit. Downey needs a permanent city manager working full-time to move Downey forward, and that won’t happen until we have a cohesive council.

This is a lot to process and we haven’t even touched the Downey school board, which has its own elections coming up in November. Downey Patriot staff writer Alex Dominguez is working on that story, which should be published soon.