I'm back! Recall has been filed!

Here is whats in the paper today! Recall petitions filed on five AJ council members Jill Jones - Jul. 3, 2008 04:19 PMSpecial for The Republic The Committee for Honest Government filed recall petitions Wednesday with the Apache Junction city clerk on five of the seven city council members, meeting the 120-day filing deadline by one minute. Shannon Flynn and Jim Stephens delivered more than double the required 222 voter signatures for each council member included in the recall: Vice Mayor R.E. Eck and council members Robin Barker, Rick Dietz and Jeff Serdy. The group turned in 579 signatures, well over the 377 required, for the recall of Mayor John Insalaco. Council members Chip Wilson and Joe Severs are not being recalled. A recall of Severs failed in May. Stephens, a former Apache Junction Police Department civilian employee, indicated that his initial involvement in the recall effort was spurred not as much by the council's failure to renew the contract of former chief of police Glenn Walp last November, but rather by what he saw as a disregard of the public opinion by the council. "This went way beyond anything to do with Walp," Stephens said. "I was awestruck by the insolence and arrogance of the council and saw such a litany of protectionism and cronyism that I began pulling public information." Flynn said she began attending council meetings following difficulty in resolving a code violation dispute. She said she was offended by what she saw as the council's self-serving attitude and disregard for public that, like Stephens, she also began to study public information records. Barker addressed the recall movement at a July 1 council meeting and congratulated the petitioners for their use of the democratic process. She also asked for courtesy and respect to those on both sides of the issue. Eck and Serdy said they felt they were being bullied and abused by recall proponents and asked for the negativity to be quelled. The recall signatures will go through a validation process, which will take about two weeks. City Clerk Kathy Connelly would not comment on a potential date for a recall election. The next election scheduled for council seats is in March 2009 in which Insalaco, Dietz, Eck and Severs would be up for re-election.