Issues 26 and 27

On May 4th, Euclid voters will be asked to approve two changes to the City's Charter. Issue 26 raises the minimum amount of signatures to 25% from 15% of voters voting in the last general election, and Issue 27 imposes a 45 day time-limit on the gathering of signatures.

As a member of Euclid's Charter Review Commission, I urge the voters to approve these changes. Recall has an adverse affect on all residents and businesses of a city and should be used as a last resort to remove an elected official for cause, and should not be used as a political tool to advance an agenda.

A recall petition should be reflective of a fair representation of the community as a whole. 70% of local communities studied required 25% of voters' signatures to effect a recall. With Euclid now split into smaller voting wards, 25% is more reflective of the voters' intent.

If an issue galvanizes a community into a recall drive, 45 days is long enough to gather signatures. A recall campaign may take as much time as they need to plan their course of action but once petitions are pulled, the 45 day clock starts ticking. Every community studied had a time frame in place except Euclid, and many of those were 30 days.

One of the vocal supporters of the failed 2005 Mayoral recall publicly stated that it took nearly 180 days to gather enough signatures to put the issue to the voters. That issue clearly did not galvanize the community the way a recall should and proves the point about why this change needs to be implemented.

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Volume 1, Issue 1, Posted 12:45 PM, 05.20.2010