Group Wins Approval to Seek Recall of Mayor

After twice failing, the Orange Political Action Committee this week finally cleared the legal hurdles necessary to launch a recall drive against Mayor Joanne Coontz.

In a petition that will have to be signed by 8,000 of the city’s 55,000 voters, the group accuses Coontz of covering up financial scandals, firing the police chief on false charges and being an ineffective leader.

Coontz refers to the recall leader, community activist Carole Walters, as a failed mayoral candidate.

“I will not be intimidated by her small band of radicals,” Coontz said in her official response to the petition.

The drive began in February, just before a divided City Council fired Police Chief John R. Robertson. City officials said that, among other things, the chief conducted a secret investigation of the city manager and council members during the continuing fraud investigation of the city’s trash and recycling companies. Robertson denied any wrongdoing.

The group’s petition was twice rejected by the city clerk: first for lacking all the names of supporters in a required ad, and then for listing an individual who was not registered to vote. On Thursday, the petition officially passed muster.

“We feel good right now that we’ve got over this,” Walters said. “We are going full ahead.”