Josh Epstein, who is running for a second term as a member of the La Cañada Unified School District board, says he had placed 100 election mailers on a table in the lobby outside the La Cañada High School auditorium where a candidate forum was being held on Oct. 7.
But when his family members checked the table during the forum, they noticed all of his flyers were missing while the election materials of the two other candidates in the school board race were still there.
When Epstein checked the video from security cameras in the lobby, he saw a man take the entire stack of his mailers and walk off.
That man was Keith Eich, a La Cañada city council member.
"I was shocked to be honest," Epstein told Eyewitness News. "We've served together on committees in the past... I don't know that ideologically we're always in sync, but we've never had any issues."
Eyewitness News reached out to Eich who declined an on-camera interview but sent us an emailed response:
"This is a private matter between two people. I attended last week's forum as a private citizen. That said, I did take more flyers than I needed. I made a mistake. I called Josh within minutes of receiving his email on Wednesday to apologize and clear things up. When several more calls were not acknowledged, I went to his house on Friday and knocked on his door to apologize in person. When no one answered, I left an apology note along with a stack of flyers I had printed to replace more than were taken, and I encouraged him to contact me so I could apologize in person and start working to repair our relationship. I still would very much like that."
Epstein is asking the city council to publicly censure Eich, remove him from any council interactions with the school board and require him to make a $50 donation to a charity of Epstein's choice as compensation for the lost flyers.
He says the episode has left him disillusioned.
"I run for the school board, I serve on the school board, I volunteered for the school district for 15 years because I love the schools and I want to talk about and make the schools better," he said. "And instead I'm talking about 'Flyer Gate' and it's making me sad."