PETITIONS CALL FOR RECALL OF BUCHANAN MAYOR; NEXT STEPS LIE WITH CLERK

By DEBRA HAIGHT

BCR Correspondent

ST. JOSEPH – Over 500 signatures have been turned in to the Berrien County Clerk’s Office on petitions calling for the recall of Buchanan Mayor Sean Denison. County Election Administrator Kathryn Kiemesrud said that recall organizers turned in 532 signatures on 54 petition sheets Monday.

The process now shifts to the County Clerk’s Office. The county clerk’s office has seven days to review the petitions to verify information on petition circulators, that the heading on the petition sheet is accurate and complete and that the recall reasons do not vary from the approved recall wording.

The number of signatures must meet the minimum requirements–which in this case is 380 signatures. That number represents 25 percent of the total votes cast in Buchanan in the last gubernatorial election.

The signatures also had to be obtained within a 60 day period. With the Denison recall, organizer Carla Johnson said she started collecting signatures Feb. 23 and that Monday, April 22 was the 60th day.

Errors made in the recall petition heading or in the circulator’s statement invalidates all of the signatures on that petition sheet, according to information provided by the county clerk’s office.

The county clerk then will forward the petitions to Buchanan City Clerk Kalla Langston, who will check signatures to voter registration records. The number of valid signatures must be certified within 15 days.

The person being recalled, in this case Denison, can examine the petitions and challenge individual signatures. The county clerk’s office then has eight days to determine the validity of the challenge.

The sufficiency or insufficiency of petitions must be determined by the county clerk’s office within 35 days of the date the petitions were filed.  If there is a sufficient number of signatures, the county clerk will then call the election, which in this case would be in November.

If Denison chooses to run in the recall election, voters would then have the choice of recalling Denison or keeping him in office for the remainder of his current term which runs through November, 2026. The ballot would feature Denison’s name as well as the names of other people who have filed to run against him.

Johnson and fellow recall organizer Monroe Lemay filed the Denison wording last December, saying that he should be recalled for suspending then City Manager Benjamin Eldridge in November after city staff submitted primarily anonymous complaints against him.

Lemay and Johnson said Monday that they found a growing number of people concerned about what’s going on in the Buchanan city government. They said people initially didn’t want to sign petitions over fears of retaliation but later decided to sign.

“We started getting people calling us who wanted to sign,” Lemay said. “The more people who heard about it, the more they wanted to sign. It was really nice to be able to talk to people and hearing their concerns … People are starting to ask questions and getting involved and not just complaining.”

Johnson said her goal was to get 500 signatures to overcome any that might be thrown out. “I never thought we would get this number; I’m fairly happy with it,” she said. “People are upset. We would have gotten more if we had more time.”

She said people told her and other petition circulators that they are concerned not only about what happened with Eldridge but also how high their water and sewer bills are as well as infrastructure problems in the city.

Denison said he had no comment about the recall at Monday night’s Buchanan City Commission meeting.

Denison wasn’t the only city commissioner who has been the subject of a recall since December. Resident Jacob Brown submitted recall wording against City Commissioner Dan Vigansky last December, quoting Vigansky as saying he always refers to “Blacks, Mexicans and Indians as ‘you people’.”

Vigansky was also censured by his four fellow city commissioners in January over his informing Eldridge of the charges against him and other issues, with commissioners asking the governor to remove him from office. That removal never took place and Vigansky remains on the commission.

Organizers of the Vigansky recall submitted their petitions filled with 397 signatures in early March and the recall failed a short time later when the number of valid signatures was found to be 353 which was below the 380 signature threshold.

The only mention of the Denison recall at Monday night’s city commission meeting came from Vigansky. Vigansky thanked all the petition circulators on the Denison recall and said he was ashamed of the harassment actions against circulators by people who call themselves city leaders. He said he didn’t harass the petition circulators against him.