Hercules voters recall council members

By Tom Lochner
Contra Costa Times

Posted: 06/07/2011 10:12:59 PM PDT

Updated: 06/08/2011 10:50:45 AM PDT

HERCULES -- Joanne Ward and Donald Kuehne, the only two remaining members of the 2010 Hercules City Council, were recalled by a lopsided margin Tuesday by voters unhappy over the deterioration of the city's finances and six-figure contracts between the city and a firm owned by the former city manager's daughters.

The vote ran 87 percent in favor of recalling Ward and 80 percent in favor of recalling Kuehne.

"The citizens have spoken," Anton Jungherr, a member of the leadership team of recall sponsor Hercules Recall, said in a brief statement late Tuesday night.

Dan Romero won a third council race, for the open seat vacated by Ed Balico, the former mayor. With all nine precincts as well as most absentee ballots counted, Romero had 46 percent of the vote, followed by Sherry McCoy with 27 percent and Mark Anthony Jones with 26 percent.

In the race to replace Ward, the current mayor, William Wilkins collected 52 percent of the vote against 46 percent for Virgil de la Vega.

The only candidate to replace Kuehne was Gérard Boulanger, who admitted just days ago that he padded his résumé with nonexistent university degrees and membership on a city council in his native France, after a Kuehne campaign mailer and website accused Boulanger of hiding details of his background. Boulanger said he would wait for the results of the election before deciding on his future.

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Submitted by Jim Alex