SAN BRUNO CITY CLERK TERRI RASMUSSEN SHOULD RESIGN NOW (PDF: 15k/3 pages)

An ancient proverb teaches us that, "When the community gets a boil, the individual also gets a blister". The boil infecting the political process in San Bruno and blistering the City's residents must now be lanced by requiring the resignation of San Bruno City Clerk Terri Rasmussen.

For the following reasons, San Bruno's City Clerk/Chief Elections Officer Terri Rasmussen must resign now because she has subverted, obstructed, and otherwise undermined the elections process while serving as San Bruno's City Clerk/Chief Elections Officer:

1) . On August 28th San Bruno Superior Court Judge Mark Forcum issued an order requiring San Bruno City Clerk Rasmussen to allow San Bruno resident Barbara LaRaia to sign San Bruno City Council Candidate Norma Elias' campaign nomination papers.

Judge Forcum had to issue this Order requiring City Clerk Rasmussen to allow San Bruno resident LaRaia to sign the nomination papers of City Council candidate Elias because, in the words of San Bruno City Council candidate Elias:

"[at 4:50 PM (ten minutes before the filing deadline, while in the City Clerk's office)] I asked Barbara LaRaia to sign my papers and the City Clerk said, 'No--you cannot have Barbara sign the papers here -- she must go in the lobby/hallway'. I said o.k. -- and tried to take the papers from Terri [San Bruno City Clerk who had taken the papers from Candidate Elias] and she would not give me the papers -- she said-- 'It's too late, you don't have time' -- It was only about 4:51 PM..."

San Bruno's City Clerk/Chief Elections Officer Rasmussen physically obstructed San Bruno resident LaRaia from signing San Bruno City Council candidate Elias' nomination papers before the 5:00 PM deadline.

The Beacon has also learned that although City Clerk Rasmussen stated that she would not allow LaRaia to sign Ms. Elias' nomination papers in the City Clerk's office, Ms. Rasmussen allowed people to sign her [Ms. Rasmussen's] nomination papers for City Clerk in her [the City Clerk's] office. It appears that Ms. Rasmussen has a double standard when it comes to deciding who can and who can't sign nomination papers in the City Clerk's office.

2). In accordance with Judge Forcum's Order, on Tuesday, September 2nd., 1997 San Bruno resident Barbara LaRaia went to the San Bruno City Clerk's office to sign the nomination papers that San Bruno City Clerk Terri Rasmussen had physically stopped her from signing. Ms. LaRaia was accompanied by San Bruno City Council candidate Norma Elias, Millbrae and San Bruno Sun reporter Sheri Baker Rickman, San Bruno residents Dick Griffith and Rose Urbach.

When, in accordance with Judge Forcum's Order, Barbara LaRaia attempted to enter the City Clerk's office to sign the nomination papers that City Clerk Rasmussen had stopped her from signing, San Bruno City Clerk Rasmussen refused to allow LaRaia into the City Clerk's office.

In the September 6th and 7th edition of the Millbrae and San Bruno Sun, San Bruno City Clerk Rasmussen argued that the use of the San Bruno City Clerk's office by San Bruno residents is a territorial issue and was quoted as saying:

"I just didn't want a whole bunch of people in my office. It is my private office, and it's my choice if I want to make it public."

[NOTE: It is ironic that San Bruno City Clerk Rasmussen would deny San Bruno residents entrance to the San Bruno City Clerk's Office in view of the fact that when my daughter and I (Bill Baker, Publisher of THE BEACON and author of this Opinion) were in Ms. Rasmussen's office a few weeks ago, during business hours, around 3:00 PM, we had to wait to have Ms. Rasmussen help me with my inquiry about a city related matter while she assisted a person who was present in her office and apparently engaged with her in a private business transaction pertaining to Ms. Rasmussen's (horse) stable or animal related business.]

It appears that Ms. Rasmussen thinks it is o.k. to use the City Clerk's office for a private business transaction but not for an official city business transaction that has been ordered to take place in her office by a Superior Court Judge.

Rasmussen reluctantly allowed LaRaia into her office only after LaRaia pointed out that the Court Order specifically stated that LaRaia was to be allowed to sign the nomination papers in the City Clerk's office. However, City Clerk Rasmussen didn't make things easy for LaRaia, Rasmussen didn't allow LaRaia to sit down and only allowed LaRaia to use the extreme corner of a desk to sign the papers.

Is entrance to the San Bruno City Clerk's office an RSVP affair, limited to Rasmussen's customers who are buying or renting horses, stables, manure or whatever it is that Rasmussen is renting or selling out of the City Clerk's office during business hours?

3). According to eyewitness statements filed with the San Mateo County Superior Court under penalty of perjury, San Bruno City Clerk Terri Rasmussen, San Bruno City Attorney Lowell, and San Bruno City Manager Hedley allowed San Bruno City Council candidate Norma Elias to be harassed, chastised, and otherwise obstructed by a mob that Ms. Rasmussen allegedly organized and assembled in her [the San Bruno City Clerk's] office.

4). In another statement, made by San Bruno Park School District Trustee William J. Henderson, and filed with the San Mateo County Superior Court under penalty of perjury, Mr. Henderson attests to witnessing San Bruno City Clerk Rasmussen engaging in partisan activities while acting as San Bruno's City Clerk/Chief Elections Officer, during business hours, in the City Clerk's office during the 1995 City elections.

As was pointed out in the eyewitness affidavits filed with the San Mateo County Superior Court, in an effort to stop Council Candidate Elias from running for City Council, San Bruno City Clerk Rasmussen and at least one member of the angry mob allegedly assembled in the City Clerk's office by none other than City Clerk Rasmussen herself, kept telling City Council Candidate Elias not to run for City Council because it would cost the City of San Bruno $16,000 to hold an election. Since San Bruno City Clerk Rasmussen is so concerned about the City spending money on elections she can resign now and save San Bruno the cost of holding a recall election to remove her from office.