ELECTION COVERAGE

In the final, but unofficial, tally of ballots in the race for Laguna Beach City Council, incumbent Toni Iseman bested fellow incumbent Elizabeth Pearson-Schneider by 272 votes, receiving 4,407, 26.7%, to Pearson-Schneider’s 4,135 votes, 25.1% of the total.

Tavernkeeper Kelly Boyd kept his lead over former City Clerk Verna Rollinger. Boyd received 4,054 votes, 24.6%, to Rollinger’s 3,883 votes, 23.6%.
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The results were unofficial because provisional ballots have yet to be counted. Three seats are open on the five-member council.
Doug Reilly, who helped with Rollinger’s campaign, said she will wait until all the votes are counted to be sure of the outcome, but is not optimistic that the official results would place her on the council.
“We’re waiting for all the votes to be counted, but overcoming 171 votes is unlikely. We’ll wait and see,” Reilly said Wednesday.
Rollinger, who won seven back-to-back elections for City Clerk before retiring, said she was disappointed. “This is the first election I’ve lost and it’s not as fun as winning,” she said.
“The hardest thing about this election was that less than 50% of the people voted.”
Boyd said he felt he had tapped into “a broad base of support” and that the backing of Laguna Beach Firefighters was pivotal. Boyd, who owns the Marine Room, a downtown tavern, jumped into the race just days before the filing deadline after Mayor Steve Dicterow abruptly dropped out, citing the cost of a difficult race on his business and personal life.
Pearson-Schneider was ecstatic over returns showing Measure M winning by a landslide, with nearly 70 percent of voters, approving the measure to extend the transportation tax. The final tally was 353,510 “yes” votes, 68.5% of the total.
“It is critical to Laguna Beach,” Pearson-Schneider said of the transportation funding measure.