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Recall petition drive will fail but initiative effort won’t, supporter says

by David Crowder

Mayor John Cook will face re-election, not recall. But there still are other strategies in the works, including a potential initiative election to put the stormwater district under the control of City Council.

Posted on June 19, 2008

The group that organized a petition drive to force the city to call an election for the recall of Mayor John Cook knows they won’t have the signatures they need by Friday’s 5 p.m. deadline.

“We’re a little shy and our deadline is tomorrow,” said one of the leaders of the Concerned Taxpayers of El Paso, businessman Lee Urias, on Thursday. “We knew coming in that we only had 19 days. We gave it a shot and found out that there area lot of people who are unhappy.

“We’re real happy with the numbers we got.”

Under the City Charter, recall petition organizers typically have 60 days to gather the necessary signatures.

But the charter prohibits a recall effort in the last year of an official’s term. That means the petition is due today at 5 p.m.

The recall petition, which backers started this month, was aimed at Cook because he presides over the City Council that approved the establishment of the new stormwater utility under the El Paso Water Utility’s Public Service Board.

The petition supporters needed the signatures of 7,967 registered voters, but had gathered just under 5,500 as of early today, Urias said.

“We may not have enough, but you should see them right now. People are climbing into our offices wanting to sign,” Urias said from his East Side insurance office.

There have been discrepancies and incorrect reports of the number of signatures needed and the date the petitions were due, but City Clerk Richarda Momsen said she is certain of both.

“I am expecting the petition Friday the 20th,” she said. “They have a very long way to go. It’s a massive undertaking.”

While the concerned taxpayer group will probably fall short on the recall petition, Urias said they already have the 2,400 to 2,500 signatures they need in another petition drive to start an initiative process by forcing City Council to consider an ordinance to bring control of the stormwater utility under the elected council’s control.

If the City Council defeats such an ordinance, Urias’ group intends to continue the process with a second petition drive – as called for by the charter – to force the city to call an initiative election at which voters will pass or defeat the proposed ordinance.

“We’re ready to hand them in,” he said of the petitions. “But we’re double checking the signatures first. “We’ll turn it in next week.”

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6 reader responses to this article:

albert r

June 20, 2008

And many of those 5000+ signatures are probably only the result of the signatories not reading the fine print. I was approached by these people to sign this petition. All they asked was if I wanted to sign a petition "to help lower our water bill." No mention of recalling Mayor Cook. A lot of people would sign something like that without further thought, its deceptive.

Mariana

June 20, 2008

albert r. let me tell you that they are 2 petitions going around one to recall John Cook and the other for the stormwater fee, I signed both.

vatoman

June 20, 2008

The recall committee who calls themselves Concerned Taxpayers is really the vanguard group of business people who want one of their own running the City. They have the impression that government can be run like a business. What government tries to do is aim for the efficiencies of business but government can never be business because the funding is public and not private. This group wants another Larry Francis, Jonathan Rogers, Fred Hervey or Joe Wardy to run the City so its members can continue taking care of their own vested interests.
I as a taxpayer do not like the increased fees for storm water management but I as a voter despise these intimidation tactics to recall a freely elected official. I will remember the businesses involved and continue to tell people to boycott those who wanted to diminish our vote for their own power grabbing interests. They talk a fine dribble about representing the taxpayers but they are firm believers that "The Business of El Paso is Business" ala Herbert Hoover.
Sin/Fin

bill greer

June 20, 2008

I am from N.E. E; Paso, so geographically one might surmise that I would be proud of having a previous City Council member from my district as the mayor.

.That is certainly not the case, I am totally embarrassed by his presence. He is so full of himself and his boot lickers that he in truth other than for the photo-ops could care less about El Paso.

The Stormwater Utility is just one of the things that is going to prevent him from serving another term. I signed both petitions. He has made El Paso more of a joke then what it has ever been before,

He is the north end of a south bound horse.

Bill Greer

joe

June 20, 2008

I doubt it very much that people are climbing all over your office to sign a Petition that would recall our Mayor Jonh Cook, whom has done a lot of good for this city. So The concerned taxpayers of El Paso will most definately try again, without any success.why dont you file a Petition to Drive Asarco out of El Paso I'll be climbing all over your office to sign it, do something worth while forget about the water tax and our Mayer John Cook our lives are definately more important then a tax bill.