The Anchorage Municipal Clerk now says she has 30 days — not 10 — to tell the sponsors of a recall application against an Assembly member whether their application is sufficient to proceed to the signature-gathering stage.
That puts the recall of Assembly member Meg Zalatel into Sept. 2 for a decision about whether it can move to the next stage.
The application was filed with the Clerk’s office on Aug. 3 and the citizen petitioners at that time believed the Muni’s website, when it said the Clerk had 10 days to issue a decision.
[Read: Group collects signatures to recall Meg Zalatel from Assembly]
That web link that says “10 days” has since been broken and replaced with another link that says she has 30 days.
The Muni website also shows no such petition in review or circulation.
Barbara Jones, the Municipal City Clerk, has since turned the recall application over to Municipal Attorney Kate Vogel for her legal opinion.
Vogel is the same attorney for the city on record saying she believed a protest outside of the Loussac Library earlier this month was in violation of the mayor’s Emergency Order 15, which prohibits groups of 25 or more gathering together outside in Anchorage.
A second recall petition by citizens is waiting in the wings for Assembly Chair Felix Rivera. That one cannot proceed until six months after the April election, according to law. But with an additional 30 days now added onto the process by the Muni, it’s more like seven months before the recall can truly begin.
Another petition for voter action has also been filed with the Muni, and that is to repeal the authorization of the use of CARES Act funds for Mayor Berkowitz’ Homeless Hotel plan.
According to the new standards posted, that Aug. 13 petition to take the question to voters on the April 6 ballot may not be answered by the Clerk until mid-September.
The group advancing that repeal initiative is preparing to legally appeal what it expects will be a refusal from Municipal Attorney Vogel.
Once an application for a petition is authorized, the groups seeking the recalls and repeal will each have to get 7,930 valid signatures from Anchorage voters, and then the matter goes to the voters.
The group seeing to recall Zalatel says she violated the law by allowing one member of the public to testify at a meeting that was closed to the rest of the public.
