PARIS — Selectmen scheduled a public hearing on a proposed recall ordinance Monday, after receiving a petition seeking to move the ordinance forward and word that a separate recall ordinance will be presented to the board.

The hearing has been scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Monday, Aug. 24, at the fire station.

The ordinance would allow for the recall of any elected official in the town with the exception of SAD 17 directors. A petition signed by registered voters numbering least 10 percent of the number of votes cast in the last gubernatorial election would be filed with the town clerk. The petition would state the name of the official and the reason voters wish to remove him or her.

An election by secret ballot would be held after the receipt of the petition, and an official less than four months into a term or less than 60 days away from finishing a multi-year term would be exempt. If the official is not removed, a petition could not be submitted until at least six months after the election.

Interim Town Manger Michael Thorne said a public hearing on the ordinance is required and the warrant must be made available at least seven days prior to the November referendum. Selectman Raymond Glover motioned to place it on the Nov. 3 ballot, and later amended the motion to include holding a public hearing. The motion passed unanimously.

In addition, resident Bob Jewell presented the selectmen with a petition calling for the ordinance to go to a referendum. The petition has 354 valid signatures and was certified by Town Clerk Anne Pastore on Friday.

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“My hope is you take action on the one that was tabled last week and this becomes a moot point,” Jewell said.

Jewell said the goal of the ordinance is to prevent the recall ordinance from being tabled multiple times.

“There’s no big secrets. Everybody knows why they think it was tabled, and it wasn’t because nobody knew it was coming, and it wasn’t because nobody knew what it said,” Jewell said. “It was because it wanted to be stalled.”

Selectman Troy Ripley said the petitioned ordinance did not make a provision for a public hearing. Glover said the original ordinance, presented by the policy and procedures committee, could be amended by public hearing but the petitioned ordinance could not.

Resident Rick Jackson also said he has been gathering signatures to petition a separate recall ordinance. He complimented the policy and procedures committee for their work, but said he does not feel the ordinance is appropriate.

“It meets the bare minimum requirements of the law in almost all ways,” Jackson said. “You’re putting an election that 1,000 people participated in into 211 people’s hands.”

Resident Janet Jamison said that under the proposed policy and procedures committee’s ordinance, 211 voters would be required to call an election, not oust an official.

“It’s not disenfranchising anybody,” she said.

mlangeveld@sunjournal.com


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