Effort to recall Lindsay council members is over

LINDSAY — The effort to recall the members of the City Council is officially over.

Monday was the deadline to submit the signatures required to keep the five-and-a-half-month effort alive, and although Lindsay resident and recall proponent Yolanda Flores insisted Tuesday morning that enough signatures had been collected, she said a decision was made by the recall supporters to not turn in the recall petitions to preserve the confidentiality of those who signed them.

The council members believe the failed effort is really a testimony to how much support they have from their constituents as the city tries to rebound from the previous administration’s failed policies and mismanagement of public dollars.

“If they had all of the signatures, it seems ridiculous that they wouldn’t turn them in,” mayor Ed Murray said. “It doesn’t sound right. It sounds fishy to me.”

Councilwoman Pam Kimball’s reaction to the news was much the same.

“The only reasonable explanation for not turning them in is not having enough signatures,” Kimball said. “It doesn’t make any sense to me to worry about confidentiality. I don’t understand that at all.”

Flores said some of those who signed the petitions are family members, fellow church members, neighbors and friends of the council members.

She said she became concerned when a city staff member couldn’t guarantee that the signatures would remain confidential.

“We had to preserve [the confidentiality that] we promised the petitioners,” Flores said. “These people could lose their jobs. They could lose their businesses. They were very sure that they were going to be retaliated against if their names were not kept confidential. We needed to make sure that they were protected.”

Kari McCully, the Tulare County Elections Department’s deputy elections supervisor, said the signatures couldn’t have been reviewed by the general public, though.

McCully called attention to a section in the Procedure for Recalling State and Local Officials guide, which says “Only Proponents May Examine Petition.”

The recall proponents had to obtain 517 valid signatures from registered voters to secure a special election.

Flores said “a little more than 600” people had signed the petitions for Murray, Kimball, vice mayor Esteban Velasquez and councilman Danny Salinas while roughly 525 residents had signed councilwoman Ramona Villarreal-Padilla’s petition.

Except for Villarreal-Padilla, who was appointed to the council in January 2011, all of the council members have served on the dais for more than a decade. The terms for Murray, Velasquez and Kimball all expire in November, and all three said they plan to run for re-election.

“Now that Lindsay has showed support for us, I think I need to (run for re-election). I think that’s what they want me to do,” Velasquez said. “I still have things that I can offer the community.”

Murray, who was first elected to the council in November 1996, said he had previously decided that his current term was going to be his last. In light of the recall effort, however, Murray said he wants to be included on the ballot come election time.

“I know we have a lot of supporters. There’s no doubt about that,” Murray said. “Every day, I see people who offer their support.”

Salinas said it will be nice to focus on city business now and put the recall effort to rest.

“There was a little bump in the road, but we’ve overcome that,” said Salinas, whose term expires in November 2014. “We’ll move forward.”

Villarreal-Padilla chose not to comment on the matter.

The recall effort was originally launched Aug. 23 but twice had to start over from scratch because certain requirements were not met along the way. Four signatures on the Notice of Intention to circulate a recall petition were declared invalid by the Elections Department on the recall proponents’ first attempt, and the Notice of Intention wasn’t published in time in a local newspaper on their second try.

On their third attempt, the recall supporters completed all of the necessary steps to be able to craft five recall petitions. They had 60 days from Dec. 8 to obtain the necessary signatures on those petitions.

While she said it’s “a little discouraging” to know that the effort has officially ended, Flores said many positives — like seeing more residents get involved in city matters and signing up more than 150 registered voters — came out of the whole process.

Flores went on to say that several people have already expressed an interest in running for a seat on the dais come November. She said she will not run for election because she wants to go to law school.