FULLERTON : Recall Supporters to Meet Next Week

Residents who want to recall three City Council members and the city clerk planned to meet next Wednesday night to kick off the recall campaign.

Deputy City Clerk Audrey K. Culver approved recall petition forms Tuesday for council members A.B. (Buck) Catlin and City Clerk Anne M. York.

Catlin and council members Don Bankhead and Molly McClanahan are objects of the recall for their support of the 2% utility tax approved in July by the council.

York is a recall target because she allegedly delayed the council recall campaign when she found errors in the petition forms. The forms must contain the reasons a recall is sought and the response from the person whom the campaign is against. State law sets strict guidelines for the format of the petitions.

The petition forms for Bankhead and McClanahan were approved last week.

To hold a recall election, residents must collect more than 8,329 signatures for each target of a recall.

W. Snow Hume, a recall supporter, said there are about 40 “block captains” who will collect signatures in their neighborhoods. Hume said the recall groups will check signatures against lists from the county registrar of voters.

In campaigns to hold special ballots, signatures are often rejected. Some people may sign even though they are not residents of the city, according to Brenda Davis, who works in the city clerk’s office. Also, if people have moved but do not register to vote, their signatures will be discounted, she said.

Hume said his group would like to get 12,000 signatures to be on the safe side.

The recall group has until Jan 24 to return the petitions against Bankhead and McClanahan, and until Jan. 31 to return those naming Catlin and York, Davis said.