City Council eyes special election procedures

Efforts under way for recalls, fluoride

With an effort under way to recall two Crescent City Council members and an initiative to take fluoride out of the municipal water supply moving ahead, city officials are starting to prepare for the possibility of special elections and ballot measures.

On Monday, the City Council will discuss whether it will enter into negotiations with the Del Norte County Elections Office to help handle the logistics of the elections should they be needed.

“Both the recalls and the initiative are potentially going forward,” Crescent City Attorney Bob Black said, “so we need to be thinking ahead.”

While the city clerk is technically the municipality’s election official, Black said the county historically has taken on that responsibility over the years, albeit for a fee.

Aside from handling the duties during an actual election, he added, if an agreement is made the county would also be in charge of verifying the petition signatures that are required to move both the recall and fluoride ballot initiative forward.

“It’s not too soon to be talking to them,” Black said.

Council members Kathryn Murray and Charles Slert both have received recall notices from their colleague Donna Westfall in the past couple of weeks, and the campaign to remove them from office is ongoing.

A number of steps still need to be taken before a special election can be held regarding Murray and Slert. One of the most significant is the actual collection of signatures to force a recall election.

According to the California Election Code, 25 percent of the registered voters in Crescent City need to sign a petition within a 60-day time frame. As of May, there were about 1,700 voters in the city limits, which means petitioners would need to gather about 425 signatures to force a special election.

The defluoridation initiative — which is being pushed by Crescent City resident Katherine Kelly as a November 2010 ballot measure — has different guidelines associated with it.

Instead of getting 25 percent of registered voters to sign a petition, Kelly only needs to collect 10 percent to put it on an upcoming ballot, and she will have about 180 days to do so.