Joey Hawkins and Kevin Roden recall, Denton, Texas (2016)
| Denton City Council recall |
|---|
 |
| Officeholders |
Kevin Roden |
| Recall status |
Did not go to a vote |
| Recall election date |
| May 7, 2016 |
| See also |
| Recall overview Political recall efforts, 2016 Recalls in Texas Texas recall laws City council recalls Recall reports |
Efforts in Denton, Texas, to recall city council members Joey Hawkins and Kevin Roden from their positions were launched in November 2015. A recall petition against Hawkins was filed on November 12, 2015, while recall petitions against Roden were rejected based on technicalities in February 2016.[1] The first petition against Hawkins was rejected on November 19, 2015, and a second round of petitions was filed on December 14, 2015. The second petition against Hawkins contained enough signatures for a recall scheduled for May 7, 2016.[2][3][4] The recall effort against Hawkins was defeated by voters.[5]
Recall vote
A vote to determine whether Hawkins should be recalled from the city council took place on May 7, 2016. This election appeared on the ballot with regularly scheduled races for mayor and two city council seats.[6]
| Recall of Joey Hawkins | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Result | Votes | Percentage | ||
| Recall | 503 | 28.63% | ||
 Retain | 1254 | 71.37% | ||
Recall supporters
Recall supporters sought the removal of Hawkins over his June 2015 vote to repeal a citizen's initiative banning hydraulic fracturing or fracking in Denton. The petition against Hawkins also cited votes to relax local drilling ordinances, a perceived lack of transparency, and a perceived lack of availability to constituents.[2]
Recall opponents
Citizens for Local Governance was created by former councilmember Pete Kamp to support Hawkins in the recall.[7] The group's website made the following claims about the recall's organizers:
| “ |
This group has been created in response to the local activism of Rising Tide, an international organization that not only advocates and mounts acts of civil disobedience but also trains others to participate in illegal activities. Through its local chapter, Blackland Prairie Rising Tide, this organization seeks to influence Denton's public policy, to make it consistent with Rising Tide's single-focus national agenda. To achieve its mission, the Rising Tide is attempting to secure seats on the Denton City Council by recalling the City Council member from District 4 and electing candidates sympathetic to the Rising Tide cause. If elected, those individuals would both impact public policy at the Council level and, through their powers of appointment, influence decision-making on Boards and Commissions WHAT IS HAPPENING: Rising Tide was founded in 2000 in the Netherlands. Its first direct action in the U.S. came in 2006, the blockading of a coal-fired power plant in Virginia. Rising Tide emerged in Denton about six years ago, when it began establishing a core unit of volunteers in anticipation of a city-wide initiative to ban hydraulic fracturing. Our community, which lies in the heart of the Barnett Shale, was ripe for such an effort, in part, because of industry pressure to expand gas-well drilling within the city limits. Support for the fracking ban soon included both a broad spectrum of Denton citizens and an amalgamation of outside interests, including International Socialist Organization, Earth Justice, which is based in Washington, D.C., offshoots of the Occupy movement, and other outside organizations whose goals, missions and activities encompass far more than just opposition to the fracturing of gas wells. Some of these organizations, including Rising Tide, actively support the use of illegal acts as a tool to garner media attention for their activities. The local movement included a varied collection of individuals, ranging from Rising Tide activists and those want to ban all fracking everywhere, to local conspiracy theorists, to those who simply want current state laws, which were written pre-Barnett Shale, to catch up to today's technology and provide modern health-and-safety protections for homes and businesses, especially in urban settings. Most local Denton voters who supported the fracking ban had no idea about the extent of outside forces at work on the initiative. Many people of good conscience were taken in by individuals expertly trained to play on genuine concerns. Citizens for Local Governance opposes the core philosophy of Rising Tide and many of its affiliates. This philosophy is described in a document titled An Anarchist’s Appeal, which the local chapter of Rising Tide has distributed in Denton. We are concerned about the foothold this and other outside groups are attempting to establish in our community through current activities, including a push to gain control of the Denton City Council. The CLG recognizes that the City’s history of respect for diverse opinions is under threat in upcoming city elections. Extremist politics do not fix our streets, empty our garbage, clean our water, protect our neighborhoods or provide myriad other daily services for which the City is responsible. The CLG believes city government must represent all citizens it serves. We urge Denton citizens to be aware of those behind the recall of the District 4 Council member and to vet fully all candidates in the District 5 and District 6 contested races in the upcoming municipal election. Information provided here, including links, will help voters do just that. [8] |
” |
| —Citizens for Local Governance (2016), [9] | ||
Response by Joey Hawkins
In an interview with the Denton Record-Chronicle, Hawkins disagreed with the complaints listed on the recall petition and referred to the effort as "part of a larger strategy."[2]
Path to the ballot
- See also: Laws governing recall in Texas
Local residents Theron Palmer and Elida Tamez submitted 125 signatures as part of a petition seeking Hawkins' removal from office. City election officials reviewed the petition with 76 valid signatures from District 4 residents necessary to advance the recall effort. The city secretary rejected the petition against Hawkins, noting that the signatures were submitted two days earlier than allowed by the city charter. A recall petition cannot be approved until the targeted official has served at least 180 days in office.[10] On December 14, 2015, recall organizers submitted a new petition with signatures seeking Hawkins' recall.[3]
The second petition was approved by the city secretary on December 21, 2015. Once the petition was approved, Hawkins was given until December 28, 2015, to resign his office. Hawkins did not resign his seat, leading the city council to schedule a recall election.[4][11]
Recall organizers initially sought the recall of Kevin Roden because he also voted to repeal the initiative on fracking. On January 26, 2016, 145 signatures were submitted to the city secretary for review.[12] The signatures were voided by city officials in February 2016 because each sheet did not feature the total number of signatures per sheet.[1]
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Denton City Council recall. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
- Recall campaigns in Texas
- Political recall efforts, 2015
- Political recall efforts, 2016
- City council recalls
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 North Texas Daily, "Recall election for Hawkins; Roden's recall disqualified," February 3, 2016
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Denton Record-Chronicle, "Recall petition filed," November 12, 2015
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Denton Record-Chronicle, "Denton locals aim to out rep," December 16, 2015
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Denton Record-Chronicle, "City OKs petition to recall Hawkins," December 21, 2015
- ↑ Denton County, Texas, "2016 May Cities and Schools Election," accessed May 7, 2016
- ↑ Denton Record-Chronicle, "Race to file begins," January 19, 2016
- ↑ Denton Record-Chronicle, "Hawkins responds to recall criticism," April 19, 2016
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Citizens for Local Governance, "About Us," accessed April 24, 2016
- ↑ Denton Record-Chronicle, "Recall petition for Hawkins ruled ‘insufficient’," November 19, 2015
- ↑ Denton Record-Chronicle, "What's next in move to recall Hawkins," November 14, 2015
- ↑ Denton Record-Chronicle, "145 sign petition to recall Roden," January 26, 2016
