Tit for tat

Chico City Councilman Karl Ory and Mayor Randall Stone are in the unprecedented position—at least over the past couple of decades—of being the subjects of a recall effort.

Based on what I heard at Tuesday’s meeting (May 21), the overarching complaint articulated by one detractor is their “inability to uphold Chico’s mission”: to protect and enhance our community’s quality of life for present and future generations. In other words, Ory and Stone ostensibly are responsible for all of Chico’s ills of late.

I could go into how ridiculous that is, since they’ve been part of the majority for only five months, but I’m more interested in addressing some of the intricacies of the effort. To get a handle on the recall process, I spoke with Chico City Clerk Debbie Presson.

She gave clarity to the issue, although she has some digging to do. That’s because, during her 20-year tenure with the city, nobody has been served with a recall petition. She confirmed that it requires a signature-gathering process and an election. But there are differences from the typical referendum process.

The short version is that, in cities with more than 50,000 registered voters—as is the case in Chico, according to recent statistics—petitioners must gather signatures equivalent to 15 percent of that number. Based on my calculations, that’s 7,600 John Hancocks. Presson says, based on that over-50,000 figure, recall folks will have 160 days to do so.

Due to other formalities, there’s no indication as to when an election would be held. What we do know is that, because the primary and general elections are relatively far off, it would involve a standalone election. That’s an expensive prospect: roughly $150,000, based on previous special elections, according to Presson.

Ory gave his detractors context while they served him outside of the City Council chambers by noting their effort would cost taxpayers the equivalent dollar amount spent annually on a Chico police officer. As the CN&R’s reporting has shown, when benefits are factored in, that’s close to the total compensation based on averages.

I’m not sure the folks behind the effort have thought the whole thing through. Stone and Ory were the top third and fourth vote-getters, respectively, in the 2016 general election. And the margin between the first- and third-place finishers was less than a single percentage point. That means we’re talking about a couple of popular politicians. Also noteworthy is the fact that their terms end in 2020.

If the recall effort makes it to the ballot, voters will not only be asked whether they want to remove Ory and Stone (a simple majority vote is needed)—they also will be asked to pick their replacements. There would be an open nomination period for candidates.

The petitioners very well may spend a lot of time, energy and money on a failed initiative. Recall organizers also will have to deal with potential payback. On Tuesday evening, Chico politico Bob Mulholland emailed the press about his intention to go “tit for tat.” His target: “both Trump supporters and Republicans Kasey Reynolds and Sean Morgan.”

On the one hand, all of this seems silly. On the other, it’s democracy in action. Personally, I’m excited to watch it unfold.