Stratton’s Wait for a Ruling on Auditor’s Race Continues : Jurisprudence: The Simi mayor files his appeal asking the state high court to overturn a lower decision removing him from the balloting.

Simi Valley Mayor Greg Stratton will have to wait until Monday to find out if the state Supreme Court will consider overturning a judge’s ruling to remove him from the Ventura County auditor’s race because he lacks the educational qualifications.

Stratton filed an appeal with the high court Friday morning and was hoping to have an answer by the afternoon. But by 5 p.m. when the court closed for the day there was still no word.

“It’s sort of like sitting on death row and the governor hasn’t called,” Stratton said. “On the other hand he hasn’t not called. So I don’t know if they’re going to execute me or not.”

Meanwhile, county election officials gave the go-ahead Friday to start printing sample ballots without Stratton’s name in order to meet a state-mandated deadline for mailing samples to voters before the June 7 election. The printer, situated in the city of Exeter in Central California, started working on the ballots immediately.

“We can’t wait any longer,” said Robert R. Orellana, assistant county counsel. County election officials planned to begin mailing ballots out to voters for review by April 28 to meet the state’s May 16 deadline, he said.

Printing of the sample ballots has already been delayed a week because of the Stratton case. Because there are 18 ballots that must be sent to more than 350,000 registered voters in seven areas of the county, officials will barely meet the deadline, Orellana said.

“If the Supreme Court changes the appeal court ruling on Monday it could cost us money (to print new sample ballots),” Orellana said. “But if they need more time it could cost us a special election.”

County elections officials estimate that a special election would cost the county about $400,000, about $1.12 per registered voter, Orellana said.

On Wednesday, the 2nd District Court of Appeal in Ventura refused to overturn Superior Court Judge William Peck’s ruling disqualifying Stratton from the auditor’s race.

Peck ruled that Stratton’s master’s degree in business administration from Cal Lutheran University does not qualify him for the auditor’s job because it was not earned at an accounting school. William Baker, a certified public accountant and one of five other candidates for the auditor’s job, filed a lawsuit challenging Stratton’s qualifications.

To qualify for county auditor, state law dictates that a candidate must either be a certified public accountant, have served as county auditor-controller or deputy auditor for at least three years, or possess a certificate or diploma from a school of accountancy.

Because there are no longer any schools of accountancy in California, Stratton has argued that his master’s degree in business administration--including 14 units in accounting--should be sufficient.

In his ruling, Peck said while Stratton might have a strong background in accounting and business administration, he nevertheless did not meet the literal requirements for the job as outlined in the 1957 law.

But Stratton and his attorney Tom Wise, saying they believed the courts are still wrestling over the interpretation of the law, cited a similar case in Santa Barbara in which the 2nd District Court of Appeal ruled that a legal challenge to a mayoral candidate’s qualifications had to occur after the election.

“I guess we’ll just have to wait and see,” Stratton said. “Right now I’m the maybe candidate.”

As for the county’s decision to start printing sample ballots, Stratton said he did not understand the rush since the deadline for getting them to the public is May 16.

“I’ve sent out mailers throughout the entire city of Simi Valley in three days,” he said. “It seems to me the county is rushing to print the ballots at the risk of (spending more) taxpayer money. That doesn’t seem real cost-conscious”

The Stratton case has some county employees working overtime. Orellana, with the county counsel’s office, said he was in his office at the Ventura County Government Center until 1 a.m. Friday preparing documents in the case for the state Supreme Court to review.

“I left the office at 1:15 a.m., went home and changed and then went to the hospital to help my wife deliver a baby at 5 a.m.,” he said.

“I don’t care about the Supreme Court,” Orellana said. “It was a great day for me.”