IF you WANT -- recall the C's and save your wetlands:

I noticed Vox talking about recalling the Hillsborough County Commissioners so I did some surfiing to see what was available for education.

I found numerous links and it appears as though a resident merely has to file affidavits of recall and begin collecting signatures. Possibly another way is to start a 'recall petition' and begin collecting signatures and the affidavit then stems from this action.

Here are some instances I read about which I felt were pertinent to share.



Cass County recall of two commissioners (Nebraska)



This one is in Colorado:


Petitioners Al Head, Joe Goecke, and Mike Gordon had until midnight tonight to submit a minimum of 3,950 valid signatures in the recall petition of Commissioner Bill Patterson. An attorney representing the petitioners and Al Head submitted the recall signatures today at 11:32 a.m. at Montrose County Clerk’s Office.

County Clerk & Recorder Fran Long determined upon a brief review that there are 5,585 potential signatures. The Clerk’s Office will begin the official validation and certification process of the signatures starting Wednesday, August 1. The method used will be the exhaustive method where every signature is verified. The County Clerk’s office has 10 working days to complete the certification process and determine "sufficiency."



I checked and Montrose County reports the following statistics on it's website:


Welcome to Montrose County in beautiful Southwest Colorado! Our thriving community is home to 37,500 neighbors.





It follows that if 3850 signatures are required than it's likely that only ten percent of the residents would be required for a recall of a commissioner, then a recall election would be held.





In Hillsborough County I found the following statistics within Wikipedia: Hillsborough County is a county located in the U.S. state of Florida. The 2000 population was 998,948. As of 2006, the population is 1,177,060 [1]. Its county seat is Tampa, Florida6. Hillsborough County is the largest county in the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater Metropolitan Statistical Area

So, it's possible that approximately 100,000 signatures would be required.



Here are some more counties who recalled their Commissioners:

This is a good one named Recall Alice who 'raised our taxes through the back door'. Hillsborough County can relate.

This is an interesting opinion by the County Attorney regarding a recall in Kansas.

ATTORNEY GENERAL OPINION NO. 99-32
Mary Ann ShirleyGreenwood County Attorney311 N. MainEureka, Kansas 67045
Re:
Elections--Recall of Elected Officials--Grounds for Recall; County or District Attorney to Determine Sufficiency of Grounds
Synopsis:
The grounds in the petition seeking the recall of the Greenwood County Commissioner are set forth with sufficient particularity as to allow the Greenwood County Commissioner an opportunity to prepare a statement in justification of his conduct in office. The veracity of the allegations contained in the recall petition is to be determined by the electorate, not the county attorney. Cited herein: K.S.A. 25-4302; 25-4320; Kan. Const., Art. 4, § 3.

Finally, this just in: It seems that in a town close to hear there was a very recent recall. This article cites the Florida state law which holds that 'approximately 15% of the registered voters" have to sign for a recall. That might be considerably less than 100,000.

REDINGTON BEACH - A special recall election will be allowed for Commissioner Sam Maniotes.
The county notified the town Thursday that enough valid voter signatures were collected to force the election.
State law requires the signatures of 15 percent of active voters to trigger a recall, which is 170 in Redington Beach, Acting Town Clerk Marie Hamilton said.
Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections Deborah Clark verified 193 of the 205 signatures submitted to her Wednesday.
Among the complaints against Maniotes - which he has denied - the citizen recall petition charged him with neglect of duty, malfeasance and creating a hostile work environment for town employees.
The recall committee initially filed a similar petition against Commissioner Leslie Peck-Epstein but had to withdraw it because under state law, she cannot be recalled until this fall, when she will have completed one-fourth of her elected term.
The town now must formally notify Maniotes of the recall. He will then have five business days to decide whether to resign or to allow the recall election to go forward. He could not be reached for comment Friday.

From the Hillsborough County Vote Site statistics suggest that approximately 93,000 signatures would be needed for a recall.


xa

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This could be a double-edged sword if a small group of citizens got together for vendetta purposes; unlike the people of Hillsborough County who seem to have valid reasons to demand a recall of representatives who are not pursuing the best agenda for the County and all of the residents.


And, for VOX: