Carson Mayor Albert Robles, City Council incumbents win

Carson Mayor Albert Robles triumphed over bitter rival former Mayor Jim Dear, grabbing his first full term as the city’s top elected official on Tuesday.

Voters resoundingly approved of the current city administration on Tuesday, handily reelecting incumbent City Council members and approving two measures the body put forward to set term limits and a marijuana tax.

“I was nervous because I know that at the end of the day the election process is a very complex process. We try to predict it and know what’s going on but we don’t know until it happens,” Robles said. “All the incumbents won and that indicates they like what they’re seeing in Carson in the last year and they want it to continue.

“I’m very appreciative of Carson residents having confidence in me and I promise not to let them down.”

With all 56 precincts counted, incumbent City Council members Jawane Hilton and Cedric Hicks fended off six challengers, taking 23.6 percent and 19.2 percent of the vote, respectively.

Robles bested Dear by more than 10 points, winning 55.2 percent of the vote. He also won a seventh term on the board of the Water Replenishment District of Southern California despite an effort by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office to unseat him because it argues the two offices are in conflict with one another.

Robles was elected to the City Council in 2013 and appointed mayor by his colleagues last year, after Dear won the city clerk’s position. Voters removed Dear from the clerk’s office in a February recall.

Dear, who served as the city’s mayor for 11 years, has been at odds with Robles since he became mayor in 2015. He was censured by the City Council in October after an independent investigation confirmed City Hall staff accusations that Dear harassed, threatened and intimidated them.

Hilton, a pastor, and Hicks, a former longtime city community services director, are political opponents of Dear.

Hilton was elected in June 2015 to the remainder of a term vacated by former Councilman Mike Gipson when he was elected to the state Assembly. Hicks was appointed in April to the City Council when former Councilwoman Donesia Gause was reinstated city clerk by voters when they recalled Dear.

More than 77 percent of voters favored Measure TL, which will institute a cap of three four-year terms on all elected officials.

Measure KK was approved by 63.5 percent of voters, adding a new city law that would tax marijuana sales at 18 percent if cannabis is ever legalized in the city.