Glendale City Council Recall Effort

Four sets of recall packets were retrieved from the Glendale City Clerk yesterday (June 15, 2015) afternoon by Glendale resident Larry Feiner.

Mr. Feiner stood up at the June 10 City Council meeting and expressed his displeasure with the direction of Council. Go to the video (click here) and Mr. Feiner appears at 1:03:09.

This preliminary action should not have been a surprise to the City Council. It’s important to note that “pulling papers” does not initiate a recall attempt until formal committees are formed.

Signature Requirements

According to the most recent edition of the AZ Secretary of State “Initiative, Referendum and Recall Handbook“, Arizona Constitution Article VIII, Pt. 1 § 1 & A.R.S. § 19-201(A) specifies:

The number of signatures required for recalling an elected official is based on the number of votes cast at the preceding election for all the candidates for the office held by the officer, even if the officer was not elected at that election. If there is more than one office being filled at that election, the number of votes cast is then divided by that number. The number is then multiplied by 25%.

It sounds complex, but it isn’t that bad.

One first needs to obtain the election results for the candidates in question from the Maricopa County Recorder (election results) web site and work your way through until you find the summary results for the election in question. In this case, three council members were elected in 2014, Hugh and Weiers in 2012.

Other factors such as “over-under” votes not being counted and the elimination of invalid write-in candidates come into play as well.

How Many Signatures Are Required?

The mayor and vice-mayor were elected in 2012 during a Presidential election year, so both have significantly higher requirements. The mayor, of course, was a city-wide election and thus uses the votes cast in the entire city for his base number.

What’s Next?

It remains to be seen if any committees will be formed to circulate recall petitions. If enough signatures are gathered, the people targeted will have the opportunity to resign or be subject to a recall election in March, 2016.

Normally, paid circulators would be necessary to circulate the petitions door-to-door in the requisite districts or city-wide in the mayor’s case. The “Recall Gary Sherwood” committee had no trouble gathering the necessary signatures, although they were very well funded.

The primary questions being asked now are:

• Who will be targeted for recall?
• Have any funds been gathered for these committees?
• Who else is involved in the process?
• Have opposition candidates already been identified?

Mr. Feiner declined to answer those questions in detail.

One could assume the decision of the Council to proceed with their case against the Coyotes today might have the effect of pushing the effort forward.