KINGMAN – Kingman citizens may continue debating the merit of last year’s coronavirus municipal mask mandate, but they won’t be expressing those views in a summertime recall election. At the conclusion of a Wednesday hearing in Kingman, Mohave County Superior Court Judge Lee Jantzen enjoined Mohave County and City officials from advancing the proposed recall of Mayor Jen Miles to an Aug. 3 election.
The ruling came after plaintiff attorneys challenging the recall, with skilled precision, knifed their way through their two-pronged argument exposing fatal flaws in the manner in which the petitions were circulated. Roopali Desai and Andy Gaona called a number of witnesses and offered argument that Judge Jantzen said clearly proved their case.
They said the law requires time and date-stamped copies of Attachments of Application explaining the recall to be attached to petition sheets signed by registered voters. Plaintiff Dr. Deborah Bennett, Mohave County Supervisor Jean Bishop, businessman Jason Marino and others testified they viewed recall petitions in various locations that had nothing attached, with no Application copies present in the same room.
City clerk Annie Meredith, the first to take the witness stand in Judge Jantzen’s brand new court room, testified that she is aware of the copy attachment requirement. She testified that nothing was attached to any of the submitted recall petitions.
Meredith said recall petition sheets submitted to her office are usually “haggard” and “worn” and bear stains, wrinkles and other battle scars of being passed around town. She further testified that the petition signature sheets submitted in this case showed such wear, but that the copies of Application turned in with the petitions were pristine.
“They were crisp, like fresh off a copy machine,” Meredith said. The pleading filed by the plaintiffs inferred recall leaders engaged in deception by including the never attached sheets along with the petitions that were submitted at city hall.
The second plaintiff argument was that recall leaders signed the backs of petitions, falsely claiming to have witnessed people sign them in their presence. Recall supporter Glenn Thoroughman testified that he did not witness each of the signatures on one petition, the back of which he signed as an attestation that he had.
A number of witnesses testified that they saw petitions, with no copy of Attachments, left unsupervised by anyone in more than a half dozen Kingman businesses. “I found it curious that I found it pinned to a board and left unattended,” Marino said of the petition he saw posted inside a veterinary clinic.
The various witnesses acknowledged that lack of supervision of the petitions left them vulnerable to manipulation.
“I don’t think I have any choice under the law,” Jantzen said as he granted plaintiff requested relief and ordered nullification of the recall.
It was the third proposed recall that failed in the past couple of months. The other failed ouster efforts targeted Bishop and Kingman Council member Jamie Scott Stehly.
Dave Hawkins
EXCELLENT!! Thank you for this reporting!