Voters seek to recall EDC supervisors

By Kathryn Reed

A group of residents disgruntled with how the El Dorado County Board of Supervisors is working is attempting to recall all five elected officials.

Today at their meeting in Placerville, Supervisors Sue Novasel and Michael Ranalli were served with the notice of intent for their recall. Supervisor Brian Veerkamp was not at the Oct. 27 meeting, but petitioners said he would be served upon his return.

The group is calling themselves El Dorado County Total Recall, and has said the intent is to recall every member of the board.

“Last year’s battles over a rural or urban future for El Dorado County pitted grassroots community groups against the huge financial backing of special interests. As a result, it is clear that citizens must rise up together from all over the county to fight for better representation,” a press release from the group said. “This may be our last opportunity to save our most important asset, the rural character of El Dorado County.”

County resident Kevin McAllister, who is quoted in the release, is part of the State of Jefferson movement that would like various counties to secede from California.

The actual notice says, “Whereas the voters of El Dorado County are a people of fairness, but when money or influences take precedence over the wishes of its citizens, we the people have a right to remove any or all of the elected officials.

“We the voters are seeking relief from the tyranny of our elected officials. They have failed to effectively and efficiently operate county government.”

Dan Kelly, spokesman for the recall group, did not return a phone call.

“This isn’t about anything specific. They don’t like our processes and our processes are working,” Novasel told Lake Tahoe News.

She believes some of the complaints people have relate to things before she was elected a year ago.

Novasel said she has been meeting with people, listening to concerns, but said it’s impossible to do what everyone wants because there are always multiple sides to an issue.

At least 20 verified signatures were required for the recall process to have gotten to this point. They must be from people in the supervisors’ respective districts.

Signing Novasel’s notice of intent were:

JoAnn Conner (South Lake Tahoe City Council member), Kenny Curtzwiler (defeated supervisorial candidate), Judy Clot (Tahoe Paradise Resort Improvement District member, and Recreation JPA member), Pam Curtzwiler, Marshall Curtzwiler, Jennifer Quashnick, Moya Sanders, Diane Verwoest, Ermel Herrmann, Matthew Adams, Tyler Baldwin, Luke Adams, Julie Ann Cavanaugh, Dov Shafer, John Oney, Mary Oney, Wayne McBride, John Adamski, Francesca Dionne Duchamp, Monica Givens-Day, Vincent Tanzi, Constance Hinton, Sue Abrams, Andrea Marion, and Dave Marion.

Novasel and Ranalli have seven days to respond to the petition in 200 words or less. The same will go for the other supervisors if and when they are served. (Ranalli did not return a phone call.) Those responses will go on the official petition. However, they are not required to respond.

The proponents then have 10 days to get other documents to the county Elections Department. The county works with the proponents to ensure a legal petition with both sides’ arguments is crafted. The proponents then have 120 days to seek the required number of signatures.

For Novasel, that is approximately 3,545 signatures, and for Ranalli it is 4,597. The figures are based on a percentage of registered voters.

Assuming the correct number of certified signatures is obtained, the recall election is then set for between 88 and 125 days after certification. The cost of the election comes out of the county’s general fund. The Elections Department could not provide what that figure might be. The next regularly scheduled election is the June primary, which if the recall could be on that ballot, would make the process less expensive.

“There was an attempt to recall a supervisor some years back, but it failed. It failed to get the requisite amount of signatures,” Linda Webster with the county Elections Department told Lake Tahoe News.

As for the supervisors, business goes on as usual.

“All I can do is concentrate on the job I am doing,” Novasel said.