Poway voters to decide fate of council member facing felony charges

Tony Blain Photo courtesy of city of Poway Voters in one Poway City Council district will decide Tuesday whether their representative who is facing felony charges in San Diego County should remain in office or be removed Elected last year to the city s second council district Tony Blain is the subject of a formal recall over what backers say are unethical actions A U S Army Reserve medical expert Blain has been accused of vote trading threatening recalls against colleagues and attempting to use law enforcement to silence critics Blain earlier described the recall effort as political backlash designed to block me from fully participating in council meetings and to punish me for asking the tough questions taxpayers deserve to have answered As of Oct Blain was deployed overseas and unavailable to comment according to his former campaign manager and a spokesman He s in a demanding situation being on progressing duty Steve Marietti a contracts manager notified City News Arrangement in a phone interview I don t know anything about this criminal development other than it s very very unfortunate He s a good man Blain was slated to appear in a downtown San Diego courtroom on Monday to be arraigned on charges that include perjury and soliciting bribes but due to his overseas deployment the hearing was postponed until January According to a pro-recall spokeswoman Blain has proven himself time and again to be unfit to serve citizens office so we know the incident for recall is rock solid Anita Edmondson a former Poway City Council member noted that Blain s criminal charges are for the very conduct that prompted the recall Edmondson notified City News Facility on Oct that within weeks of taking office late last year there was evidence of Blain attempting bribery and vote trading She commented that Blain also misused his position to attempt to silence critics demanding that the city initiate law enforcement action against private citizens with whom he disagrees and when denied calling the county Sheriff s Office himself Edmondson accused Blain of being abusive to Poway establishment colleagues including City Manager Chris Hazeltine and City Attorney Alan Fenstermacher Edmondson mentioned that Blain has demonstrated he was not interested in following the city s code of ethics behavior that earned him the city s first and second censure by fellow council members in its -year history This was all within the first six weeks of being in office Edmondson added There was no doubt Mr Blain would continue his abusive unethical and unprofessional behavior if left unchecked In February the Poway City Council voted - to censure Blain the first time in that governing body s -year history Blain was absent from that meeting In April the city of Poway filed a lawsuit against Blain for allegedly destroying general records and failing to comply with the California Populace Records Act The lawsuit alleged Blain conducted city business on private email accounts through text messages and on the encrypted Signal app then deleted selected of those messages A Poway city spokeswoman announced Oct that the city does not have an official position on the matter of the recall ballot measure and will not be official monitoring of results on Referendum Day Located in eastern Poway District comprises a considerable chunk of the city and is home to numerous communities such as Bridlewood Country Estates The Farm and Summerfield It also contains the popular recreation sites Iron Mountain and Lake Poway City News Operation contributed to this article