Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Standard-Examiner: Response to Brigham City Mayor's Affair: Bill for Recall Election

Sadly, we'll not be holding our breath

Intriguing story from yesterday's Standard-Examiner, reporting that "State Rep. Lee Perry is preparing a bill for January’s legislative session to create a recall election law in response to concerns expressed by Brigham City residents about the lack of a way to remove [the philandering] Mayor Dennis Fife  from office":
Here's the fundamental question, wethinks.  Does the GOP-dominated Utah Legislature have the guts to set up even a narrow legal process to oust creepy sickos like Fife from their duly-elected political offices?

Sadly, we'll not be holding our breath.

And what say you, O Gentle Ones?

5 comments:

Bob Becker said...

The problem, Ridi, is how do you define, in such a law, the circumstances that would justify a recall referendum? If you make it open ended, requiring only a certain number or percentage of the electorate to sign a recall petition, you run the risk of a party trying to simply un-do the previous election, but if you make the bar so high that it will almost never be cleared short of conviction for a felony, you haven't changed anything, really.

blackrulon said...

Do you really expect the same basic group of legislators who gave admitted child sexual predator Kevin Garn a standing ovation to make actual provisions for elected offical recall?

rudizink said...

 Good questions, Bob.  Here's a pretty good article on the subject, which addresses some of your concerns, summarizes procedures among the fifty states, and delineates those jurisdictions which require specific grounds to support a recall election at state and local levels:
Recall of State Officials
Interesting concept, although I doubt Rep. Perry "has a snowball's chance" of getting this done in Utah.

rudizink said...

 Nope.

Ernie the Attorney said...

You got it right, Rudi.  No way will the Utah legislature make a rule punishing Mormon Bishops for merely "boning" their enticing and sultry LDS parishioners.

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