STATE LAW VS. CITY CHARTER* 14,854: Number of signatures required under state law to recall Mayor Ron Littlefield, Council Chairman Manny Rico or Councilman Jack Benson* 900: Number of signatures needed under City Charter to recall Benson* 600: Number of signatures under City Charter needed to oust RicoSource: Hamilton County Election Commission
A group trying to oust two City Council members backed away Monday from trying to recall them now that a judge’s ruling could have set a higher standard for a recall election.
“It’s not that [the] want’s not there,” said Chris Brooks, senior organizer for Chattanooga Organized for Action. “I think everybody is taking a step back.”
Chattanooga Organized for Action, along with the Chattanooga Tea Party, targeted Council Chairman Manny Rico and Councilman Jack Benson for recall a little more than a month ago. But last week, Hamilton County Circuit Judge Jeff Hollingsworth ruled state law prevailed over the City Charter in recall efforts. That means a higher standard for being able to oust the mayor and council members.
“It would be nice if they would … let us get back to city business,” Benson said Monday.
Election officials said Monday that 67 signatures have been turned in for Rico and six for Benson.
Chris Clem, attorney for the Hamilton County Election Commission, said Monday if the commission followed City Charter then it would mean about 900 signatures would be needed from District 4 to oust Benson and 600 registered voters in District 7 to remove Rico.
Under state law, it requires 14,854 registered voters to oust either one of them and it does not matter if it’s within the district, Clem said.
“I don’t think it’s even possible to recall a City Council member,” he said.
He said that could cause some challenges to the state Constitution if petitioners were able to get almost 15,000 signatures. But he said at this point no election will be held in the near future because the ballots have already been shipped to the printer.
“It won’t be this November,” he said.
That means the next shot at a recall probably won’t be until May 2012 when there is a county general election.
Rico said Monday he never was worried about the recall effort getting enough traction to force a recall election.
But if the groups do garner enough signatures, he would run for reelection and not spend time in court, he said.
“I’m not going to fight them,” he said. “I’ll let it take its course.”
Contact Cliff Hightower at chightower@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6480. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/CliffHightower.