Smith lead widens in council race
by C.A. Gilman

Although still too early to make it official, Carol Smith's 10-vote lead over Bruce Roland widened to 32 votes on Monday, the Board of Election announced. There remain 2,858 provisional ballots to be counted and verified from voters throughout the county who weren't on the roster election day.
The latest vote is Joe DeVito with 1,399, or 21.4 percent; David Bury with 1,344, or 20.6 percent; Smith with 1,143, or 17.5 percent; and Roland with 1,111, or 17 percent.
Roland called Smith on Monday to offer his congratulations. "I got into this race to bring 1,000 or more people to vote against Measure C. I'd like to think I helped kill the measure. However, with Carol supporting it, it looked like Measure C killed me," he said.
This is Roland's third election bid and he doubts he will run again. He said, "There is a good possibility that I'm out of touch with the direction that this town is going - deeper into the tourist business and away from the small-town culture I remember."
Smith said, "Although Bruce and I have had our differences, we feel that the benefits that we brought to this election can be addressed. I hope to engage a lot of people in solving the traffic problems and hope to bring more balance to the City Council. I am also interested in prudent spending as well as the environment."
The final results of the Nov 5 election will be announced on November 26.

© 2002 The Ojai Valley News

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