If political movements were contagious, the recall bug in San
Benito County might be considered an epidemic.
Hollister – If political movements were contagious, the recall bug in San Benito County might be considered an epidemic.
After the second recall effort against District Attorney John Sarsfield was launched in January and opponents of Supervisor Jaime De La Cruz announced they were throwing their hat into the recall ring earlier this month, it appears San Juan Bautista may be jumping on the band wagon as well.
Long-time San Juan resident Rebecca McGovern, who pulled recall papers from the county Election’s Office Wednesday, said she plans to initiate a recall effort against two city councilmen for their decision to fire former City Manager Larry Cain last week.
A long-time San Juan political aficionado, McGovern has set her sights on Mayor Arturo Medina and Councilman Chuck Geiger, who along with newly-seated Councilman George Dias voted in favor of ousting the popular city manager because of a lack of communication and poor performance evaluations.
But based on the county’s recall history, whether McGovern’s efforts or the proponents of Sarsfield and De La Cruz’s recalls will be successful is another story.
Recall movements, which are designed to remove an elected official from office before the end of their term, were added to the state’s constitution in 1911 as a way to return the government to the citizens, said Karen Daniels-Mead, spokeswoman for the Secretary of State’s Office.
Since then, California has seen only one recall at the state level – the infamous Gray Davis recall of 2003 that successfully dethroned Davis from his position as governor and seated actor Arnold Schwarzenegger in his place. While the Secretary of State’s Office doesn’t have data on county or city recall attempts, Daniels-Mead said she doesn’t believe they’ve increased since the Davis recall.
“I hear about them enough to say they’re not frequent, but they’re not unheard of,” she said.
San Benito County Elections Clerk Kim Hawk sees a different scenario unfolding since the Davis recall, however.
“Since the recall for the governor succeeded, now recalls seem to be the thing to do, but I think it’s a phase they’re going through,” Hawk said. “Recalls are in right now.”
There have been between eight or 10 recall attempts in the past 20 years in San Benito County, with only one making it across the finish line, said Registrar John Hodges. In 1990 three San Juan Bautista city councilmen, Bruce Freels, Sam Hill and Kurt Larrecou, were successfully recalled during a special election that cost the city almost $8,000, said county clerk Kim Hawk.
Hawk didn’t have any numbers on how much a recall would cost in San Juan today, but it wouldn’t be anywhere near the approximately $100,000 the county would have to cough up to for a special election to recall Sarsfield because there’s only 899 registered voters in the city, Hawk said.
In the past, recalls were rare in the county. In 1984, former Mayor Cliff Cardoza was the target of a recall attempt; in 1993 it was former Supervisor Ruth Kesler’s turn in the hot seat; and in 2001 former Hollister City Councilmen Tony Bruscia and Tony LoBue were under fire over the large housing development Award Homes. All of the recall attempts other than the one against the three San Juan council members fizzled out in the beginning stages, Hawk said.
While Kesler said she doesn’t remember much about the attempt to unseat her as a county supervisor more than 10 years ago, Bruscia’s recollection is much more vivid.
“It felt like the world was against you,” he said. “But they never had enough signatures to qualify for the ballot, so it went nowhere. Fortunately.”
To make another San Juan recall a reality, McGovern will need to gather 270 signatures over a 40-day period. However, she hasn’t even begun collecting the needed 20 signatures to file an intent to recall the two councilmen, she said.
Right now she’s still working on getting a statement written and other housekeeping matters in order, but believes she has the community support behind her to reach her goal. From her dealings with Cain, she believes he did a satisfactory job for the city and was unfairly targeted.
“They fired Larry Cain without cause, at least as we saw it,” she said. “All of this is a two-way street. If you want to communicate you can always communicate, even with your worst enemy.”
Erin Musgrave covers public safety for the Free Lance. Reach her at 637-5566, ext. 336 or em*******@fr***********.com
