Recall petition in hands of Glenwood City clerk
GLENWOOD CITY — A recall petition against Glenwood City Mayor John Larson and Council members Nancy Hover and David Graese was delivered to City Clerk/Treasurer Sharon Rosenow on October 9th.
On September 20th a group calling themselves “Glenwood City Citizens for Legal and Ethical Representation” filed statements of Intent to circulate recall petitions against those three members of the city council.
Deanna Schone and Julie Augesen, both Glenwood City residents signed the recall petition that was filed on September 20th and stated the reason for the recall was “Malfeasance.”
According to a news release from the group of October 9th which stated, “The mayor and these council members have refused to take seriously a petition for a referendum which would allow the citizens to vote on whether an industrial sand mine is located less than a mile from a public school and next to the neighboring community of Downing.”
The release continued, “They (city council) have refused to take seriously any input from citizens or neighbors when creating a silica sand mining ordinance, and allowed very limited input from citizens or neighbors when creating this ordinance. The council continues to spend money on attorney’s fees regarding mining issues after repeatedly being asked to hold a referendum on whether the citizens even want a mine in the city limits.”
That news release indicates that the request for a referendum was about allowing a silica sand mining in the city limits, but in fact, it was a request for a referendum about annexing land that is the site of a proposed mining operation. At present time no paper work has been filed requesting annexing land from the Township of Glenwood into the City.
The city clerk has 31 days from October 9th to verify the signatures and allow for the current officials to challenge any of those signatures. The petitions must contain signatures from at least 83 qualified electors of the City of Glenwood City.
If the City Clerk verifies that sufficient numbers of qualified electors have signed the petition, then up to six weeks of time is allowed by state law for the election to be held. If there is a need for a primary, when more than two candidates have filed, the election procedure can consume up to ten weeks because of the need for a primary election. If a primary is needed, but a candidate receives more than fifty percent of the vote, that person is elected and the next election is not held.
The number of signatures on the recall petitions that the city hall received last week were as follows: Petition to recall Mayor John Larson, 114 signatures; Council Person Nancy Hover, 111 names and Council Person David Graese, 108 names.
Incident mars petition drive
An incident happened during the petition drive that ended with a complaint to the local police department. Apparently a person that was going door to door, circulating the petition to be signed encountered a property owner within the city that told the circulator “get a job” and then apparently lit the petition on fire.
The person circulating the petition dropped the paper work on the front lawn of the property and left. Police Chief Robert Darwin reported that he was contacted the next day and interviewed the parties involved and found the remains of the paper work still in the front yard of the property.
Darwin forwarded a report to the county District Attorney for any further action. The Tribune is not reporting the names of the parties involved at this time because no charges have been filed.