If the Recall Mayor Harper proponents wish to attempt to remove the Mayor from office, they will have to start over after a deadline was missed.
Antioch resident Rich Buongiorno announced Thursday that he was informed the Publication of the Intention to Circulate Recall Petition was a day late and accused the City of “dirty politics”.
He explained that the delay was due to misinformation provided to him by the City Clerk and City Attorney.
Buongiorno explained due to a delay of trying to get information, it caused the publication to be delayed. He also stated he tried to set up a meeting, however, no meeting was held and was not invited to the meeting where the determination on 10-days was made.
“One can only suspect that the two consecutive day delays was intentional knowing the outcome would mean starting over. I state that because there is latitude on a local level. That information was confirmed with the Secretary of State,” said Buongiorno. “Instead, they have been determined that the original process has ended and IF we want to continue, we will have to start over from the beginning.”
Antioch City Clerk Arne Simonsen provided an explanation Thursday along with documentation from the City to Mr. Buongiorno.
Simonsen explained that the Mayor responded to the Petition on October 22 and on October 23 sent a copy certified mail to Mr. Buongiorno on October 23. The 10-day clock started on October 23.
“It’s 10 calendar days and the exception to the rule is if the 10th day is on a weekend, it goes to the next Monday,” explained Simonsen. “A copy of the election code was provided to Mr. Buongiorno where it clearly states he has to publish notice of intention served in October. All he had to do was take that to local newspaper and publish it.”
Antioch City Manager Steve Duran stated there is not much they can do.
“I don’t think that the City Clerk can do anything but follow the rules as the State wrote them,” said Duran.
Meanwhile, Mayor Wade Harper explained there was no confusion on his part about the timeline stating he followed the rules.
“There certainly was no confusion on my part. The instructions are clear,” said Harper. “I filed my response in a timely manner. I am open to meeting with the applicant of the intent to recall to listen to his ideas about how to make our city better. I have no hard feelings.”
Harper stated he has reached out to Buongiorno to discuss what the city is doing to address crime, hiring police officers and homeless problems the city faces. He has yet to hear back from Buongiorno.
Even with the setback of having to start over, Buongiorno says the attampt to recall will continue.
“Personally, this is just more dirty politics and shows that they will stoop to any level and go to any extreme to stop this recall. Well, they may want to play dirty politics, I refuse to allow our movement to follow suit. We will take the high road, we will start over and we will seek the recall of Mayor Wade Harper,” said Buongiorno.
Below are an email exchange between Mr. Buongiorno and City Clerk Simonsen.
—–Original Message—–
From: Simonsen, Arne
Sent: Thursday, November 06, 2014 11:19 AM
To: —[email protected]
Cc: Nerland, Lynn Tracy; Garcia, Christina
Subject: RE: Recall Debacle
Mr. Buongiorno,
I have reviewed your email dated November 5, 2014.
Unfortunately you missed the 10-day period after receipt of the response from Mayor Harper. You received his response on October 23, 2014 and per Elections Code 11042, you were required to submit the proof of publication of your Notice of Intention and two copies of the petition no later than 5 p.m., Monday, November 3, 2014 (the end of the 10-day period).
On advise from the Secretary of State’s Office, the recall effort you initiated in October has ended.
However, if you wished to proceed, you will have to start all over from the beginning and you can’t re-use any documents already filed. There is no timeframe for starting over.
Respectfully,
Arne
Arne Simonsen
City Clerk
City of Antioch
________________________________________
From: Rich [—[email protected]
Sent: Wednesday, November 05, 2014 2:19 PM
To: Simonsen, Arne
Cc: Nerland, Lynn Tracy
Subject: Recall Debacle
Dear Mr. Simonsen,
Under your advice, I have been in contact with the FPPC who advised me that they do not handle “recall” elections and consequently referred me to the Secretary of State, as you had also recommended. The Secretary of State representative, after conferring with their attorney, advised me that this is a local issue and the latitude lies entirely on a local level or if necessary with the courts.
The two primary reasons for the 5-day delay in publication is as follows:
* On October 23, 2014, I received by certified USPS mail, Harpers “answer” to the recall. Had it been received earlier, that would have allowed me to proceed and consult with the Deputy City Clerk. Instead, I was forced in to waiting until the next business day to consult with the Deputy City Clerk Christina Garcia. However, due to City Hall staff being furloughed on Friday’s, and not open at all on Saturday’s and Sunday’s, I had to wait until 10/27/2014 to attempt to get the needed consultation. This created the beginning of a 3 day delay in publication.
* On October 27, 2014, after presenting a simple question regarding the format needed for the publication of the “Notice Of Intention to Circulate Recall Petition” in a local newspaper, I was advised by Deputy City Clerk Christina Garcia, that I should contact the Secretary of State or an attorney for that information. Please note; Deputy City Clerk Christina Garcia was presented with the question due your absence. This created the 4th day delay in publication due to the misinformation provided by Ms. Garcia.
* Later that day, and on my behalf, Marie Crandell, my authorized representative, did contact the Secretary of State’s office who referred her to the Elections Office in Martinez, who in turn referred her back to the City Clerk for determination and final decision. All parties making the referrals did so because the decision on the format of the publication is determined on a local level. As a matter of fact, they stated that everything, other than signature verification, is performed on a local level.
* The following day, October 28, 2014, upon speaking with Ms Garcia, Marie Crandell did advise her that she had contacted the Secretary of State’s Office, as well as the Elections Office in Martinez. She advised Ms Garcia that both the Secretary of State’s Office and the Elections Office referred her back to the City Clerk’s office, as this was a local decision. They had also stated that the City Attorney could provide assistance to the City Clerk in making that decision. Marie Crandell was once again advised by Ms Garcia, that she should contact the Secretary of State or an attorney for that information, and that she was given the wrong information from both the Secretary of State and Elections Office in Martinez. Please note; Deputy City Clerk Christina Garcia was presented with the question due your absence.
* As such, Ms. Crandell, requested to have a meeting with the City Attorney Lynn Nerland. She apprised Ms. Nerland of the situation and Ms. Nerland did admit that she did not have an answer to that formatting question, however, that she would do some research and get back to us no later than Thursday. If we did not hear from her by Thursday, we should call her. Ms. Nerland also requested that I send an authorization to all concerned parties to authorize the discussion of all business related to the recall with Ms. Crandell.
* Therefore, the same day I sent forthwith, via email the authorization to the City Attorney, Deputy City Clerk and yourself. I also attached the two proposed publication formats, provided by the East County Times, for authorization. This has now created a five-day delay in publication due to the unavailable city staff, weekend, and misinformation supplied by Deputy City Clerk Christina Garcia on TWO consecutive days.
* On October 29, 2014, I received an email from you. In it, you were kind enough to respond to the formatting issue and advised which of the two formats supplied by the East County Times was acceptable. I should add that the East County Times, had they been provided the information in a timely manner, could have published this notice on 10/24/2014, well within the allowed timeframe.
East County Times had the correctly formatted notice and was requesting authorization to proceed on 10/22/2014. The notice was published on 11/04/2014, far later than the the original 10/24/2014 date. However, one day later than the 10 day date due to the unavailability of city staff and misinformation supplied by Deputy City Clerk Christina Garcia on TWO consecutive days
I was advised by the Secretary of State representative that remedies of this type are handled on a local level for recalls. They would not send an email to all parties concerned because they could be brought in as one of the parties if this ends up for judicial review.
I am requesting that you consult with the City Attorney regarding this unfortunate situation because legal recall remedies are locally determined, just as the formatting of the notice publication was a local determination.
I personally feel that I should not be penalized for being 1 day late when I made an obvious concerted effort to ensure publication within the specified time frame, only to be delayed through no fault of my own, but a series of frustrating circumstances predicated by the lack of qualified personnel and availability of said personnel.
I am readily available to attend this meeting if your feel it necessary.
Respectfully submitted,
Richard Buongiorno
6 comments
This was nothing but an effort on the part of the No on O Campaign to discredit Mr. Harper. It was a distraction created for a purpose. We all expected it to be dropped after the election and it has been for whatever reason. Mr. Simonsen simply follows state law so the group is simply out of luck. Pay attention next time. If this was for real there will be another attempt.
You really need to get over this “Rich is a shill for No on O.” And another attempt is already under way. Let’s see how the crooked council tries to cockblock this one.
So frustrating. People need to follow the paperwork and what the law says. Also, if this is true that the mayor reached out for a meeting, why haven’t the recall folks and the mayor met?
Do it again. There are challenges to everything in life. Don’t let the mayor or his allies scare you.
Interesting how Harper was sure to get right on this issue and make actions, but what about the crime in Antioch? How many shootings have we had in the last week?
If you are going to take on something like recalling a mayor you sure as hell better know what to expect including the timeline of what the steps are. While I can sympathize with his frustration he should understand that it was up to him to be ahead of the game in order to be successful. Quite frankly, a recall wasn’t and isn’t in the best interest of the city. When it all came down to it, the cost and effort would have taken Harper out maybe a year before he was up for reelection. If the people are unhappy with the mayor then he won’t be reelected & two years from now we will have a new mayor in Antioch.
I think recalling a mayor because he isn’t doing enough or isn’t successful in what he said he would do is not a good basis for recalling any politician. Recalls are expensive and create a huge distraction for the council business at hand. They say bad politicians get elected by a lot of good people that DON’T vote. The people behind the recall efforts should now focus on getting people engaged and ready to go out and vote for the next election.
I think the people of Antioch should be developing some good candidates to run against the mayor. Those candidates should be smart, audacious, & committed people ready to focus the city on it’s many problems and have specific plans on how to fix things. If you pay attention to the campaigns rarely do the candidates share specific ideas. It could be they don’t want someone else to take their ideas, do them and take credit for them. Or it could be (and is more likely) that they don’t know what they hell they are going to do but will say whatever they can to get elected.
In the meantime, let’s see what happens with the new blood on the council and a mayor knowing he has about 18 months to prove himself.
Randy; I have been to every council meeting in 10 years except two. All budget meetings over those years and every other meeting I can get to. I have yet to find any thing “crooked” on the part of any council. Maybe not smart but not crooked or illegal.
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