Police Investigating Covina Recall

Covina police are investigating allegations that a supporter of the recall drive against three City Council members offered to invalidate petitions containing 700 signatures he had gathered.

Mayor Tom O’Leary and council members Linda Sarver and Tom Falls are being targeted for recall after they voted in late 1994 for an 8.25% utility tax. Recall organizers have until May 4 to turn in 4,128 signatures, or 20% of the city’s 20,639 registered voters, for each council member to face a recall election.

Falls, a deputy district attorney, said recall supporter Tom Manke made the offer to him personally in February and again Friday.

Manke could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Manke offered to remove his name from several recall petitions containing more than 700 signatures in exchange for a management audit of City Hall, Falls contended. Without the signature of the person who collected the other signatures, the petitions are considered invalid, City Clerk Wilma Duke said.