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Alan Minthorn recall, Saco, Maine (2021)
| Saco City Council recall |
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| Officeholders |
| Recall status |
| See also |
| Recall overview Political recall efforts, 2021 Recalls in Maine Maine recall laws City council recalls Recall reports |
An effort to recall Ward 5 City Councilor Alan Minthorn in Saco, Maine ended when Minthorn resigned in February 2021.[1]
Recall organizers, led by the group Save Saco Neighborhoods, said that Minthorn had not adequately responded to residents' concerns about a proposed apartment complex development and other issues. Minthorn responded by reaffirming that he opposed the development project and planned to vote against it.[2]
Recall supporters
A group of residents called Save Saco Neighborhoods initiated the recall effort. They said that they did not trust Minthorn to represent their interests concerning a proposed apartment complex development.[2]
Jane Caron, a spokesperson for Save Saco Neighborhoods, gave the following statement.
| “ | Unfortunately, when approached by Ward 5 residents, City Councilor Alan Minthorn has not provided his constituents clear responses to meet their needs and questions concerning their ward in regards to zoning, traffic, schools and safety. ... City Councilor Alan Minthorn, for whatever reasons, has not been able to reach out to discuss, stand up nor publicly state his support of his Ward 5 constituents’ concerns for the ward and the concerns his constituents have for the City of Saco as a whole.[2][3] | ” |
Recall opponents
Minthorn responded to the recall effort by reaffirming his opposition to the apartment complex development.
| “ | This petition effort is a distraction from our shared goal of defeating this development project. ... We need to keep our eye on the prize. I will be voting against it anytime it gets to me on the council.[2][3] | ” |
Minthorn also emailed the following statement to Ballotpedia:[4]
| “ |
Attempted to organize meeting between developer scheduled for 2/23/21 and was rejected by SSN Unofficial Spokesperson Phil Hatch on 2/21/21. SSN members rejected any and all communication supporting city policies enforce at the time; my position, swore by Oath to uphold. I was unopposed for two re-election bids, the latest three months prior to my resignation.[3] |
” |
Path to the ballot
- See also: Laws governing recall in Maine
Organizers submitted a recall affidavit to the city clerk on February 22, 2021. The Saco City Charter required that organizers also submit 50 signatures of registered voters from City Council Ward 5 for the city clerk to draft a recall petition.[2]
For a recall election to be scheduled, the petition needed to be signed by 15% of voters registered in Ward 5 as of the last municipal election.[2]
The recall campaign ended when Minthorn resigned in February 2021.[1]
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Saco Bay News, "Saco Ward 5 Councilor resigns," February 22, 2021
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedPortland - ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Ballotpedia Staff, "Email communication from Alan Minthorn," January 3, 2022
