Mission Viejo councilman Lance MacLean should follow the action taken by Flint, Michigan Mayor Donald Williamson who resigned 10 days before his recall election. Following are brief comments on other recall efforts around the country as published in today’s LA Times “Throw the bums out’ is national mood.”
Tuesday August 25th is the deadline for turning in the recall petitions in Mission Viejo. From what I am told the volunteers have obtained more than enough with a comfortable cushion against any challenges.
The Times reports that “Recall efforts are already up more than 100% over all of last year, according to one tally. Voters target local leaders: mayors, school board members, city and county officials, sheriffs.
As the unemployment rate topped 25% and General Motors planned to cut more jobs in this long-struggling auto town, voters decided to focus their anger on one person: Mayor Donald J. Williamson. More than 17,000 residents signed a petition demanding his recall, citing waste, corruption, mismanagement and sundry other complaints. Williamson resigned 10 days before the vote.
“He made people so mad,” said Eric Mays, a retired GM worker who led an earlier effort to recall Williamson that failed. “He had to go.”
Fueled by the recession, voters nationwide are recalling local leaders, including mayors, school board members, county officials and sheriffs.
Although there is no official tally of recall efforts, the website Ballotpedia:Recall reports at least 52 local campaigns this year — up from the 24 last year, it said.
At least 13 elected officials this year have resigned, decided not to run for reelection or been recalled, according to the website.
“There was so much anger toward big government and, right or wrong, we at the local level are the direct target of it,” said County Commissioner Kevin W. Stufflebean of Coos County, Ore., who successfully beat back a recall attempt this year.
In May, voters in Tuolumne County, Calif., recalled all five board members of the Big Oak Flat-Groveland Unified School District…
In Kimberly, Idaho, voters started a petition drive to recall the mayor and two council members after they backed a 50% increase in utility fees to fund infrastructure projects. The petition drive fell short, and law enforcement officials are investigating whether local officials tampered with the process.
A mayoral recall vote was set for this fall in Toledo, Ohio — despite Mayor Carty Finkbeiner’s announcement July 12 that he wouldn’t seek reelection….
Recalling officials is considered a relatively drastic form of democracy. Instead of challenging an official’s stance on specific issues, such as tax hikes or land use, “voters are condemning all of their policies,” said Phyllis Myers, head of State Resource Strategies, a Washington-based consultant on state and local ballot measures.
“It’s rare that you have the public be that angry with an elected official,” Myers said.
With the recession continuing to hurt city budgets, “these early recalls could be the beginning of a deluge of local political battles,” said Joe Mathews, a senior fellow at New America Foundation and former Los Angeles Times reporter.
Few municipalities have as much experience mobilizing the electorate around a City Hall recall as Flint. The city pushed to recall two mayors in seven years.
Williamson’s predecessor was recalled in 2002 over economic issues…. As mayor, he was combative with the local media and critics. “He’d been pushing people and pushing people’s patience for a long time,” Mays said.
Williamson, who did not return calls for comment, and his supporters scoffed at the recall effort, saying voters were recall-crazy: In addition to the mayor, a councilwoman faced a recall attempt, as did three board of education members in nearby Westwood Heights School District.
In June, Don Plusquellic, who has been mayor of the struggling blue-collar town of Akron, Ohio, since 1987, overwhelmingly defeated a recall initiative, which cost the city $175,000…. “I’ve been involved in local politics for decades and I’ve never seen anything like this,” said attorney Warner Mendenhall, who spearheaded the mayoral recall effort. “People are energized. They’re ready for a fight.”
The entire Times recall summary can be found at the following link.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-recall1-2009aug01,0,2626189.story
OK Santa Ana activists. Are you happy with Mayor Pulido? If not are you mad enough to begin a recall?
We need to let every public servant know that while we carried them over the finish line, we will not sit on the sidelines if they fail to deliver. More often than not, instead of drinking Orange Juice, they fill up on Kool Aid with arrogance of power.
Right behind Lance MacLean is CA Assemblyman Anthony Adams, R-Claremont, who broke his pledge not to raise taxes. He is now in the crosshairs of other activists getting petitions on his recall which requires 36,000 valid signatures.
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