Another Case of Misusing Recall Process : Threat to Launch Effort to Remove Wieder Lacks Justification, Should Be Rejected

Through the years Orange County has seen a substantial number of attempts to recall public officials, with reasons ranging from the righteous to ridiculous.

There was one in Laguna Beach several years ago because the City Council wouldn’t let one merchant put a clothing rack outside a downtown store. And one neighborhood group in Santa Ana, intent on making immediate changes in the city’s election laws, wanted to start a recall just to get an election on the ballot. They had no specific target and to be “fair,” planned to put the council members’ names in a hat and draw one.

The threatened recall that surfaced recently against Harriett M. Wieder, chairman of the County Board of Supervisors, may not be as capricious, but it is no less a misuse and abuse of the recall process.

A spokeswoman, who said she represented a group of 100 dissatisfied residents but declined to release any of their names until the recall effort was legally launched, cited several reasons, including Wieder’s support for new environmental regulations on businesses. And Wieder’s reference to a fellow supervisor as “a Hitler.”

Wieder is outspoken and sometimes ruffles feathers. And, although active in water and air-quality issues, she is also considered by many a friend of the business community. In any case, the reasons offered by the recall proponents fall far short of justifying such a drastic action. Especially when Wieder’s fourth term is up at the end of next year and she has announced that she will not seek reelection.

Wieder suspects that the recall effort is political and is being generated by the same people who tried to defeat her last reelection effort three years ago. If that is so, it is not unprecedented. Recall threats for purely political purposes are not new to Orange County. A particularly deceptive one was launched against one county supervisor 23 years ago. They usually don’t wind up removing their target from office. In many cases they aren’t really plotted to do that. The goal is to throw enough mud to dirty an incumbent’s reputation and bog down their political career.

The recall machinery is a vital and necessary process that enables voters to remove public officials for major breaches of performance or conduct, not because they disagree with them or don’t like their style. That’s what regular elections are for.

The public has been wise to that, and consistently has rejected attempts to abuse the process. The threatened recall against Wieder offers another valid opportunity to say no to such tactics.