FULLERTON : Recalls Committee May Sue Bankhead

Members of the Fullerton Recalls Committee said Monday that they hope to sue recalled Councilman Don Bankhead in an effort to keep him from being elected to a four-year City Council term in the November general election.

Committee chairman Thomas S. Babcock said a suit will be filed if a Superior Court judge rules today that the committee may recover its legal fees--totaling about $10,000--in a recent lawsuit it won to force a special recall election.

“If we get our legal fees back, we will have money to sue Bankhead,” Babcock said. “We feel that when the people removed him from office, it was intended to remove him until November, 1996.”

Bankhead and two other members of the council, Molly McClanahan and Mayor A.B. (Buck) Catlin, who were recalled in June, have been prohibited from running in the October special election to replace them.

Bankhead submitted candidacy papers Friday to run for the council in the general election, which is not affected by the special recall election, City Atty. R.K. (Kerry) Fox said.

Bankhead, whose term expires in 1996, may legally run in the general election because it is not meant to replace him, Fox said.

But recalls committee members disagree.

“He shouldn’t have the opportunity to run and take a seat on a governing body that the voters removed him from until the end of his term,” Babcock said.

Bankhead said: “I think it’s ridiculous. Every person that qualifies in this country has the right to run for public office. I certainly don’t think I violated any law that would prohibit me from running for office.”

He said he is seeking office “because I care about what happens to the city of Fullerton.”