Group Fails in Effort to Recall Mayor Coontz
A recall drive launched against Mayor Joanne Coontz ended this week when activists failed to collect enough signatures of registered voters.
The Orange Political Action Committee needed 8,000 signatures by June 1 but gathered only 6,000 since April 28, when the city clerk gave final approval to a recall petition.
Carole Walters, a community activist with the group, blamed procedural snafus for the failure to collect enough signatures.
Activists targeted Coontz in large part because of her vote to fire former Police Chief John R. Robertson. Walters said the 30 volunteers who helped with the recall drive will now spend the summer campaigning against Coontz.
“We’re not stopping,†Walters said. “She hasn’t won anything.â€
Coontz has repeatedly said she was ignoring the group, which she called a “small band of radicals,†and is moving on with her campaign for the November election.
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