Recallers Meet Signature Number Goal

At Tuesday’s City Council meeting, along with recall leaders Anton Jungherr and Gerard Boulanger, politically active resident Dan Romero announced that the Hercules City Council Recall group had gathered enough signatures to hold a recall election for the seats of Mayor Joanne Ward and Councilman Donald Kuehne.

Jungherr said the group collected a total of 5,844 signatures, with 2,857 for Ward and 2,987 for Kuehne, in 18 days. About 2,500 valid signatures for each councilmember were needed.

Now, the signatures must be verified by the City Clerk. If all the signatures are valid—meaning they were produced by registered Hercules, California voters—the City Clerk will issue a certificate of sufficiency to the Council.

The Council is then in charge of deciding whether to hold a special election or wait until the next regularly schedule election date, which fall on June 7, 2011. The council would need to decide by March 11 to make the June election.

“We’ve accomplished our objective,” Jungherr, who has never participated in a recall, said.

Jungherr said the recall group served its purpose, but that it’s now vital to find the right candidates to run for the three council seats. The recall was initially directed at Ward, Kuehne, and Ed Balico, who stepped down as mayor at the onset of the recall.

For someone to be nominated as a replacement candidate, they need to file a nomination petition with at least 20 qualified signatures with the City Clerk by March 24 to make the June election.