Kenai

ACLU sues to stop recall targeting Homer City Council members

The American Civil Liberties Union of Alaska has filed suit to stop the city of Homer's recall election of three council members, saying the recall effort is unconstitutional and violates the council members' right to free speech.

In a memo issued Monday, the ACLU said legislators, including Homer City Council members Donna Aderhold, David Lewis and Catriona Reynolds, have a well-established right to discuss their views on local or national policies.

Lewis, Aderhold and Reynolds sponsored a resolution earlier this year calling for a stop to discrimination of minority groups, including illegal immigrants, that was dubbed the "inclusion ordinance" by supporters. It failed to pass with Reynolds as the sole vote in support.

The recall petition was requested March 6 by Michael Fell on the grounds that the councilmembers violated Homer code when they allegedly engaged in prohibited "political activity" with the "inclusion resolution" as well as an earlier resolution sponsored by Lewis and approved by the majority of the council affirming support for the Standing Rock Lakota Tribe in its opposition to the Dakota Access pipeline. Petition supporters said the council members engaged in misconduct that caused "irreparable economic harm" to the city.

[On the heels of Homer's 'inclusivity' resolution, some residents aim to recall City Council members]

City staff struggled with what they said was a lack of definition for terms used in the petition such as "impartiality" and "misconduct in office" in Alaska law. City Clerk Jo Johnson ruled that two of the petition's three allegations were sufficient to proceed with the recall vote. The claim that the council members participated in political activity was deemed insufficient because political activity is defined as support of a candidate or ballot proposition.

At Monday's meeting, City Attorney Holly Wells said she was unsurprised by the ACLU's complaint challenging the city certification of the recall petition and said the lack of clarity and confusing language made the ruling vulnerable to challenge.

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"We are moving as quickly as possible to get court guidance and direction and take steps to argue the city's position to support the petition," Wells said, adding that the three nonconflicted council members should expect an executive session on the city's position at the next meeting. Among the things the remaining three council members will be asked to consider is the potential costs associated with the case. If the city loses the case in court, it will be held liable for the ACLU's attorneys' fees. Wells said the city should expect fast action on the case in order to get a decision prior to the June 13 election.

Several residents spoke in support of the three accused council members saying the language of the recall petition made it sound like the council members have already been found guilty.

"Three people are being attacked for doing their job," said Ann Keffer. "Don't let yourself be swayed by the false accusations."

Poppy Benson said she did some research into recall elections throughout the Pacific Northwest and found that most of them were politically based and in small towns but that all the recall elections she found were in reaction to some action taken by an individual — a council member, police chief, mayor.

"In our city, this recall is about what they talked about," Benson said. "Nothing happened. That's pretty sad."

This story first appeared in the Homer Tribune and is republished here by permission.

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