HOMER - A recall effort has begun for two Banks County Commissioners following Tuesday night's vote against a Georgia State Patrol post in the county.
Banks County resident Gary Clark said following Tuesday night's meeting he has begun the process for Commission Chairman Jimmy Hooper and Commissioner David Duckett.
"Before this vote was taken, I'd already filed paperwork with voter registration to do a recall based on the information that was being fed to us by the commissioners' actions that there was going to be a negative vote on this post," Clark said. "With that being said, I did have some recall petitions."
In Georgia, a resident must gather 100 signatures of registered voters to receive a recall application form. Once the county elections superintendent verifies the 100 signatures, required to be within five days or receipt, the petition process begins.
In the case of a local officer, the number or electors necessary to petition the recall of the officer must be equal to at least 30 percent of the number of voters registered and qualified to vote in the last preceding election for any candidate offering for the office held by the officer.
"I am in the process of getting my 100 signatures for the pre-application in order to get my recall ballots, and I will be proceeding with these 100 to the voter registrations office as soon as I obtain my 100 signatures," Clark said. "I'm well on my way. I've taken a good 20 or 30 signatures here tonight."
Clark said he would have filed to recall Commissioner Danny Maxwell but couldn't because Maxwell is protected by law since he is in the first 180 days of his term. He said after talking with other residents Tuesday night, they will be filing a petition for recall against Maxwell once he's outside that 180 days.
Grounds for recall are set out in law as follows:
"That the public official has, while holding public office, conducted himself or herself in a manner which relates to and adversely affects the administration of his or her office and adversely affects the rights and interests of the public; and
"That the official has committed an act or acts of malfeasance while in office; has violated his or her oath of office; has committed an act of misconduct in office; is guilty of a failure to perform duties prescribed by law; or has willfully misused, converted, or misappropriated, without authority, public property or public funds entrusted to or associated with the elective office to which the official has been elected or appointed."
Georgia Code goes on to state, "Discretionary performance of a lawful act or a prescribed duty shall not constitute a ground for recall of an elected public official."
Clark said he isn't happy to be starting the recall process.
"It's a sad day that we have to resort to recalling our county officials because they're not doing the job that the citizens spoke them to do," Clark said. "We had a previous meeting on this two weeks ago with over 100 people in favor of this post and they've blatantly ignored the fact that the citizens wanted this post located in this county."
