City completes raw vote count on petitions to recall two Santa Cruz council members
City officials completed a raw count of the petition signatures supporting the recall and removal of Santa Cruz City Council members Chris Krohn and Drew Glover. If supporters of the recall have enough valid signatures, the recall decision could be put in the hands of voters.
The Santa Cruz United campaign, who is leading the recall petition efforts, said they submitted more than 23,000 signatures in total. The city only requires a minimum of 8,000 for each petition.
The city takes this process seriously.
“We want to make sure that we have a transparent process and an accurate count of these signatures,” said Ralph Dimarucut with the city manager’s office.
From here, the signatures go to the county to validate. They’ll have 30 days to make sure the people that signed are registered Santa Cruz voters.
This marks a major landmark for the campaign which began this process back in June.
“I feel that they need to do what’s best for the community overall and I don’t believe they have that vision,” said John McKelvey, a Santa Cruz United member.
The complaints surrounding Glover and Krohn are largely two-pronged-first, they were the loudest voices against the closure of the Ross homeless camp and second, Santa Cruz United cites bullying and harassment.
Back in August, an independent investigator found Glover and Krohn violated the city’s ‘Respectful Workplace Conduct Policy’ in two of several allegations levied against them.
Glover responded to the latest step in the recall effort through Facebook. He said in a post, “I am dismayed and disappointed in the fraudulent claims and lies that have been used to falsely attack my character in order to influence people to sign.”
And members of a group pushing to stop the recall are coming to Glover and Krohn’s defense.
“They’re probably two of the hardest working council members we’ve had in recent years and it’s certainly disappointing to see that people will band together to oppose them without even participating with them on discussions about the issues in our city,” said Ed Porter who is a former city council member and part of the effort to stop the recall.
Krohn’s term on the council ends in December 2020 and Glover in December 2022.
The March ballot would have a separate recall question for both Glover and Krohn if enough signatures are proven valid. There would also be an additional question where voters could choose who they want to fill those council seats. But that would only go through if Glover or Krohn is actually kicked out of office.
KION 2019
