Local News in Brief : Candidate to Ask for Recount

Valerie Dombrowski, who was forced into a runoff in the three-way race for the District 4 City Council seat in Redondo Beach, said Wednesday that she has decided to ask for a recount.

She fell four votes short of the 50%-plus-one majority she needed to be declared the winner in the March 7 municipal elections. Her closest opponent was computer consultant Terry Ward, who will face her in a May 16 runoff unless the recount pushes Dombrowski over the top.

“It’s so close and there’s always a chance of error,” said Dombrowski, a school board member, who received 467 votes to 419 for Ward. She said that if she wins the recount, “it will save me and the taxpayers money” otherwise spent on a runoff, “and it will put me quickly in that council seat.”

If Dombrowski formally requests the recount today as she plans, a manual recount of the District 4 votes will be conducted Wednesday in City Hall, starting at 9 a.m., Deputy City Clerk Linda Gregory said.

Gregory said the estimated $225 cost will be paid by Dombrowski if she loses the recount, or by the city if the new tally changes the outcome.

The mayoral and District 2 races also failed to produce outright winners--by wider margins--and the top two vote-getters in each of those contests will be in the May runoff.