Four officials in Avenal, Calif., who refused to step down after being recalled earlier this year are “not lawfully” in office, a judge ruled on Monday. The officials — including the longtime mayor, who is part of the City Council, and three other council members — have remained in office since the April recall, arguing that it was unauthorized. They will now step down, a city official said.

The California Supreme Court dealt a blow to a local government’s ability to seize water utilities on Monday, ruling that courts get the final say on whether a public utility is necessary. Apple Valley, located in San Bernardino County, California, will have to go back to the drawing board for its plans to take over the privately owned water utility, Apple Valley Ranchos Water Company.

(Subscription required) California’s Supreme Court on Monday appeared poised to order Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco to return the 650,000 ballots he seized earlier this year amid a local group’s claims of election irregularities. The justices, hearing oral arguments in San Francisco in two related cases, also seemed prepared to find that the attorney general has broad constitutional authority to stop investigations like Bianco’s.

The legality of a Southern California sheriff’s seizure of about 650,000 ballots cast in last year’s redistricting election will be considered by the state Supreme Court on Monday, as oral arguments begin in two cases involving Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco. Bianco, a Republican who at the time was running for governor, took control of about 1,000 boxes of ballots from the Riverside County Registrar of Voters in March, after obtaining search warrants from a judge who had been a political ally.