Recall effort moves forward

By Kara Hansen

The West Linn Tidings, Nov 5, 2009 (10 Reader comments)

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An effort to unseat three West Linn city councilors moved ahead Monday with the city’s approval of recall petitions.

Now, petitioners must gather 1,593 signatures from West Linn voters by 5 p.m. Jan. 28 to trigger a recall election against council president Jody Carson and councilors Scott Burgess and John Kovash.

It might be the first attempted recall in West Linn.

Leading the charge is Mary Ann Mattecheck, a retired nurse who has lived in West Linn for nearly 25 years.

By working with volunteers, the chief petitioner is aiming for 6,000 signatures to ensure enough gathered are valid. She said the signature drive will begin this month.

A retired nurse living on a fixed income, Mattecheck has said the city council’s recent decision to join a county advisory committee exploring wastewater treatment capacity didn’t give enough weight to financial implications. The vote was split, with Burgess, Carson and Kovash in favor, and Mayor Patti Galle and councilor Teri Cummings opposed.

“It’s going to impact my quality of life,” Mattecheck said. “If I have to pay bills on that, what’s going to be left over for the other essentials?”

With the official launch of the recall campaign, Mattecheck has added to her list of grievances, citing a lack of transparency in local government as a major concern.

She said the councilors have failed to respond to e-mails from citizens and ignored or dismissed their comments at council meetings.

But all three councilors say they have followed city processes and rules. And city and county staff have repeatedly said West Linn will not bear any financial burden for projects outside of the city’s sewer district by participating in the new county partnership.

“I think myself and the other two councilors ran to represent the citizens of West Linn to the best of our abilities; I think we’re doing that and will continue to do so,” said Burgess, a city councilor since 2004. “That does not mean each of the councilors will agree among themselves on every issue, nor will citizens always agree with our positions.”

He noted he’ll try to ensure the recall effort doesn’t become a distraction from city business.

“It seems we have plenty to do, aspirations and needs within the community, and we need to get on with those,” Burgess said. “My only interest is the citizens of West Linn.”

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