Citizens in Russellville are collecting signatures in the hopes of forcing Mayor Richard Harris out of office. Harris started his term in January.
“This campaign is not aimed at the character assassination of any public official,” said Jami Brent, a spokesperson for the Recall Russellville Mayor group, in a press release. “Our hope is to instigate citizen participation in government by taking a stand against those who either make poor economic decisions for the city, or perhaps worse, abstain from crucial votes on city economic proposals.”
According to the press release the city was put in the national spotlight after a group of neo-Nazis disrupted a Walk of Remembrance Holocaust memorial event. A community meeting was announced by Harris in response, and then abruptly canceled a few hours later.
Harris,came under fire again when he abstained from voting for or against a special use permit for a proposed medical marijuana dispensary on South Arkansas Avenue. The Russellville City Council voted 4-4, and the request failed.
A statement on the group’s Facebook page says that not voting on the dispensary permit “is what started the initial discussion around a recall election.”
According to Arkansas statute 14-48-114, when petitions requesting the removal of any such officer — signed by qualified electors equal in number to 35 percent of the total number of votes cast for all candidates for that office at the preceding general municipal election at which the office was on the ballot — are filed with the city clerk, the clerk shall determine the sufficiency of the petitions within 10 days from the date of the filing.
If the petitions are deemed sufficient, the clerk shall certify them to the county board of election commissioners, which shall issue a proclamation in accordance with 7-11-201 et seq., calling a special election on the question and shall fix a date for holding it not more than 90 days from the date of the certification of the petitions by the clerk.
According to the Pope County Election Commission said a special election could cost approximately $10,000 to $15,000.
State law says if a majority of the qualified electors voting on the question at the election shall vote for the removal of the officer, a vacancy shall exist in the office. City Attorney
The group’s goal is to collect approximately 2,900 signatures in order to put the question on the November 2019 ballot.
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