DARLINGTON- The Lafayette County Taxpayers for Positive Change collected enough signatures to submit a petition to force a recall vote for Jack Sauer, Lafayette County Supervisor for District 3 and board chairman. The recall vote could come in August.
At 11:30 a.m. Friday, Eileen Elgin, the petitioner, and Mary Larson and Barbara Brown submitted 114 signatures to Linda Bawden, Lafayette County clerk.
The group needed to get 106 signatures on the petition, based on 25 percent of the 422 voters in the November election.
Bawden now has 31 days to verify the signatures and determine the sufficiency of the petition to meet state law.
Barring any challenges against the petition, Bawden will file the petition and schedule a recall election for six weeks later.
The recall election would included the Town of Seymour, the Town of Kendall and Ward 1 in the Town of Darlington.
The group says it already has a candidate, Larry Leahy from the Town of Kendall, who has stepped forward to challenge Sauer.
"I met so many people who really do care about what's going on in the county," Larson said Friday. "People think it's time for a change."
According to the petition, the group wants Sauer recalled because he has shown "inappropriate and unprofessional actions in Lafayette County committee meetings" and he "continues to support county department head whose decisions are sending county dollars out of the area."
More specifically, Larson said Sauer has injected himself too often as the stand-in for absent voting members at committee meetings; is habitually late for meetings; amassed $10,000 in per diem pay for 2010; and probably violated open meeting laws during closed session discussions.
Larson also believes Sauer is responsible for leading other board members to allow the Lafayette Manor nursing home to contract for medical and legal services and for staffing from out-of-county agencies. That, said Larson, pushed local unemployment numbers up and sends money out of the county.
Bawden said a recall election would cost about $2,000 to cover publications, machine coding, paper ballots and poll workers. But Larson believes the money the county would save without Sauer's leadership would more than return that amount.
Sauer could not be reached for comment and did not return messages left at his home Thursday and Friday.
Sauer won his most recent election 164 to 140 in April 2010 against Ray Elgin, husband of Eileen Elgin.
The group filed its Statement of Intent to Circulate Recall Petition and the Campaign Registration Statement for the group on May 5. It had 60 days to complete the petition.
On May 24, the group had about 75 percent of the required signatures. To acquire that many signatures in three weeks, Larson said most signatures were obtained following making an initial phone call to the voter, although they did go door-to-door as well. They had 60 days to get the necessary signatures.
At 11:30 a.m. Friday, Eileen Elgin, the petitioner, and Mary Larson and Barbara Brown submitted 114 signatures to Linda Bawden, Lafayette County clerk.
The group needed to get 106 signatures on the petition, based on 25 percent of the 422 voters in the November election.
Bawden now has 31 days to verify the signatures and determine the sufficiency of the petition to meet state law.
Barring any challenges against the petition, Bawden will file the petition and schedule a recall election for six weeks later.
The recall election would included the Town of Seymour, the Town of Kendall and Ward 1 in the Town of Darlington.
The group says it already has a candidate, Larry Leahy from the Town of Kendall, who has stepped forward to challenge Sauer.
"I met so many people who really do care about what's going on in the county," Larson said Friday. "People think it's time for a change."
According to the petition, the group wants Sauer recalled because he has shown "inappropriate and unprofessional actions in Lafayette County committee meetings" and he "continues to support county department head whose decisions are sending county dollars out of the area."
More specifically, Larson said Sauer has injected himself too often as the stand-in for absent voting members at committee meetings; is habitually late for meetings; amassed $10,000 in per diem pay for 2010; and probably violated open meeting laws during closed session discussions.
Larson also believes Sauer is responsible for leading other board members to allow the Lafayette Manor nursing home to contract for medical and legal services and for staffing from out-of-county agencies. That, said Larson, pushed local unemployment numbers up and sends money out of the county.
Bawden said a recall election would cost about $2,000 to cover publications, machine coding, paper ballots and poll workers. But Larson believes the money the county would save without Sauer's leadership would more than return that amount.
Sauer could not be reached for comment and did not return messages left at his home Thursday and Friday.
Sauer won his most recent election 164 to 140 in April 2010 against Ray Elgin, husband of Eileen Elgin.
The group filed its Statement of Intent to Circulate Recall Petition and the Campaign Registration Statement for the group on May 5. It had 60 days to complete the petition.
On May 24, the group had about 75 percent of the required signatures. To acquire that many signatures in three weeks, Larson said most signatures were obtained following making an initial phone call to the voter, although they did go door-to-door as well. They had 60 days to get the necessary signatures.