The fourth of four recall petitions for the Festus mayor and three of the city’s councilmen submitted to the Jefferson County Clerk’s Office gained certification on its second try.
Jefferson County Clerk Jeannie Goff said the group seeking recall elections for the four elected officials gathered enough signatures to try to oust Ward 1 Councilman Dave Boyer. The first petition seeking to recall Boyer was 36 signatures short to be certified.
“They needed 496 (certified signatures),” Goff said today, June 3. “They have a total of 525 with the amount turned in previously and the new signatures. So, 65 new signatures were certified.”
Mary Fakes, a data center development project opponent who has been a leader for the recall effort, said her group did not have difficulty gaining the signatures needed for the petition resubmission on Boyer.
“We collected them Saturday and Sunday and turned them in Monday,” Fakes said. “I know we needed 36 and we got more than we needed. Now, it’s at the city. It’s up to the council.”
Boyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment for this story.
Goff said the petition resubmission for Boyer was turned in Monday, June 1, and her office certified it that day. Also, that day, she sent the results of her office’s signature certification to Festus City Clerk Leah Smith and Brian Malone of Lashly & Baer, the city’s law firm, just as she had done with the prior recall petitions her office had handled, she said.
The recall petition for Boyer was initially submitted to the County Clerk’s Office on May 18 along with recall petitions for Mayor Sam Richards and council members Kevin Dennis of Ward 3 and Michael Cook of Ward 4. The four elected officials each have just less than a year left on their current terms.
On May 28, Goff announced that Boyer’s was the only petition that did not meet a threshold of 25 percent of the registered voters in the entire city for the mayor or in the individual wards for the councilmen. However, those calling for the recall had 10 days to gain the necessary qualified signatures for Boyer, she said.
Malone acknowledged receiving the results of the Boyer recall petition from the County Clerk’s Office.
“That is correct, we’ve received an amended certification from the county clerk regarding Councilman Boyer,” Malone said today in a written statement.
Goff said the next step in the recall process is for the Festus City Council to process or “order the question.” If this happens, the Jefferson County Election Authority determines when the recall elections occur, she said.
Malone said he expects City Council members to consider all the recall petitions at their meeting at 6 p.m. Monday, June 8.
Charles Hatfield, an attorney for Boyer, Richards, Dennis and Cook, in a letter sent to Malone on June 1 said, “I respectfully urge the council to vote against placing these petitions on the ballot. Should the council nonetheless vote to place the recall on the ballot, my client will have no choice but to file suit seeking declaratory and injunctive relief.”
He had sent a similar letter to Goff May 19.
Stephen Jeffery, an attorney representing those who support the recall effort, in a letter to Goff last month said the petitions “comply with all legal requirement in order to be submitted to the voters,” and that she should not be “gaslighted” by Hatfield’s letter.
The recall petition effort sprang up over a proposed CRG data center development project, with the mayor and the City Council as constituted before the April 7 election, pushing forward ordinances allowing the project to progress.
Soon after the project became public, a large number of citizens began protesting the project, citing concerns over water and electricity use by a data center, as well as pollution and health concerns and other issues. They also criticized what they said was a lack of transparency by Festus officials in regard to the project.
During the April 7 election, the four council members whose seats were on the ballot were unseated by newcomers who are opposed to the data center development project. One council member, Staci Templeton of Ward 2, resigned April 13 and the seat has not yet been filled.