More than a dozen people rallied at the corner of Espola and Valle Verde roads in Poway on Tuesday to get out the vote to recall Councilmember Tony Blain.
The rally happened just days after the San Diego County District Attorney's Office charged him with four felonies and a misdemeanor.
“These are very serious charges," Poway Mayor Steve Vaus said. “Felony perjury, felony bribery, felony destruction of records. He has no business being in office.”
Blain took office in December 2024 and trouble started almost immediately. He was accused of vote trading, and threatening and harassing city staffers and other officials, including City Attorney Alan Fenstermacher, who lashed out during a council meeting in January.
In February, Blain was censured by the Poway City Council, a first for the city. In April, the city took an unprecedented step of suing Blain, its own council member, to force him to comply with the California Public Records Act and to stop him from destroying records.
The city said the lawsuit was filed as a "last resort to prevent significant liability for the city."
Charles Hume, who lives in Blain's district, said Tuesday he was disappointed in Blain when he saw him in action at a City Council meeting earlier this year. During that meeting, Hume said he saw Blain make baseless accusations against the city.
“It’s very disappointing that you can have someone on the council with no integrity,” he said.
After that, Hume said he decided to join the Recall Tony Blain committee. He was among the dozens or so rallying for the recall Tuesday.
It’s unusual for the D.A.'s office to charge someone this close to an election, but Vaus said the charges are appropriate.
“They are well deserved, and the timing is what it is,” he said.
Blain is an Army Reserve doctor, and he is currently deployed in the Balkans. When reached for comment, Blain directed all inquiries to his lawyer, who did not return multiple calls.
The military has a system called flagging that will restrict Blain’s movement while deployed, said Steph Kral, a former attorney with the Judge Advocate General Corps. She’s now a civilian defense attorney for military members.
“It's highly likely that he'll just be returned from the deployed environment so that he can attend whatever civilian proceedings he needs to attend,” Kral said.
Blain is scheduled to be arraigned Monday. Despite the government shutdown, Kral said Blain will likely be there for his arraignment.
“In the 15 years that I've been doing this, government shutdowns or not, I've never had a client who's been unable to return from a deployed environment to appear in a court proceeding,” she said.
Blain still has some supporters in Poway, as evidenced by the Tony Blain for Mayor signs spotted sporadically around the city.
While the charges against Blain were welcomed, Vaus is worried that voters might not show up to polls next week because of that.
“It's a two-edged sword,” he said. “When that indictment came down, I thought, 'Oh, are people are going to think my vote doesn't matter anymore.' It does matter.”
The special election to recall Blain is Tuesday.
