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Golden Recall Effort Fails

by: Jeffco Pols

Fri Feb 27, 2009 at 09:41:56 AM MST


As The Golden Transcript reports:

The movement to recall six sitting city council members including the mayor fell short on Monday, Feb. 23 when recall organizers failed to turn in any documentation by the 5 p.m. deadline...

...Petitions to recall Smith, and council members Karen Oxman, Joe Behm, Diane Chesbro, Bill Fisher and Marjorie Sloan were filed with the City Clerk's office in December. The petitions claimed council had been fiscally irresponsible, lacked civility and improperly convened executive sessions.

Ward One Councilwoman Mary Weaver was the only sitting council member not recalled.

Recall organizers then had 60 days to collect enough signatures to force a special election with an estimated cost of $50,000.

"I'm glad the citizens of Golden recognize that the recall petitions are intended for serious breaches of the public's trust, not for petty disagreements about city policy decisions" said City Manager Mike Bestor.

Phone calls made to two recall supporters were not returned, A third recall supporter declined to comment.

This is good news for many reasons, not the least that the city won't have to spend unnecessary money for a recall election when a general election will be held in November anyway. There was no real reason for the recall effort aside from the personal gripes of a small minority.

Jeffco Pols :: Golden Recall Effort Fails
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Quixotic
The recall appears to have originated with long standing grievances with the city, e.g., a "my way or the highway," authoritarian attitude on the part of previous city councils learned on the Coors shop floor, transparency problems with the city manager and city staff. The flashpoint seems to have been City Council's decision to remove the Daughters of the American Revolution from managing the Pioneer Museum. The presenting issue wasn't large enough to motivate people to sign recall petitions, and so it was baked in the cake that the effort would fail. To avoid situations like these in the future City Council needs: (a) to continue its progress away from good old boy / Chamber of Commerce / Golden Good Government League rule and (b) to step up to its responsibility to give direction to city staff rather than to act as sock puppets for the city manager.

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