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Linda Parks recall, Ventura County, California (2021)
| Ventura County Board of Supervisors recall |
|---|
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| Officeholders |
| Recall status |
| See also |
| Recall overview Political recall efforts, 2021 Recalls in California California recall laws County commission recalls Recall reports |
An effort to recall Linda Parks from her position as the District 2 representative on the Ventura County Board of Supervisors in California did not go to a vote in 2021. Recall supporters did not submit petitions by the filing deadline.[1]
The effort was approved to circulate petitions on February 23, 2021. To get the recall on the ballot, recall supporters would have had to collect 11,067 signatures from registered voters in Ventura County's District 2.[2][3]
The effort started after Parks and three other supervisors voted in January 2021, to initiate litigation against 18 businesses—four restaurants and 14 gyms—for repeated violations of state and county closure orders that were enacted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The recall petition called the lawsuits frivolous and said the county should be governing with compassion. Supervisors said they supported the lawsuits as a last resort to help slow down the spread of the coronavirus. They settled with a majority of the businesses in February 2021 and voted to drop the remaining five lawsuits in March 2021 when Ventura County lifted indoor restrictions.[2][4][5]
The other three supervisors who voted in favor of initiating litigation against the businesses were not eligible for recall when Parks' recall effort started. State law required officials to serve their current terms for 90 days before a recall effort could be started against them. All three supervisors had started their terms in January 2021.[2]
Parks was firsted elected to the five-member board in 2002. She was serving her fifth and final term on the board, which ended January 2, 2023, as she was prevented from running again due to term limits.[2]
To read about other recall efforts related to the coronavirus and government responses to the pandemic, click here.
Recall supporters
The recall effort was led by Deb Baber. The notice of intent to recall included the following reasons for recall: "voting to sue members of the community...keeping schools closed, locking down residents, denying due process and preventing people from visiting loved ones in the hospital," according to the Thousand Oaks Acorn.[4]
The recall petition read:[4]
| “ | Linda Parks’ actions have spawned costly, taxpayer-funded frivolous lawsuits at a time of tremendous financial stress. Constitutional authority, common sense and compassion should govern our county, not threats, fear, intimidation and retribution.[6] | ” |
Recall opponents
Parks said she believed the recall effort was led by extremists who refused to follow guidelines to contain the virus and defied state and county health orders while other businesses followed them.[2]
Parks said she was targeted for trying "to keep people from getting sick and dying of COVID." In her response to the recall effort filed with the county, she urged voters not to sign the petitions and said the recall supporters were not telling the truth.[2] She said the recall petition blamed her for matters that were beyond her control.[4]
Parks' response to the recall effort also contained a statement from Ventura County Sheriff Bill Ayub, who asked voters not to support the recall.[2]
Path to the ballot
- See also: Laws governing recall in California
The recall petition was approved for circulation on February 23, 2021. To get the recall on the ballot, recall supporters would have had to collect 11,067 signatures from registered voters in Ventura County's District 2. If the recall had qualified for the ballot, a special recall election would have been scheduled. If an election had been held, a simple majority vote in favor of the recall would have removed Hall from office.[2][3]
Ballotpedia covered 35 coronavirus-related recall efforts against 94 officials in 2022, accounting for 13% of recalls that year. This is a decrease from both 2020 and 2021. COVID-related recalls accounted for 37% of all recall efforts in both 2020 and 2021. In 2020, there were 87 COVID-related recalls against 89 officials, and in 2021, there were 131 against 214 officials.
The chart below compares coronavirus-related recalls to recalls for all other reasons in 2020, 2021, and 2022.
See also
- Ventura County, California
- Recall campaigns in California
- Political recall efforts, 2021
- County commission recalls
External links
- Search Google News for this topic
- Ventura County Board of Supervisors
- Ventura County Elections Division
Footnotes
- ↑ Ventura County Star, "Effort to recall Ventura County Supervisor Linda Parks fails as deadline passes," September 14, 2021
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 Ventura County Star, "Five-term supervisor faces recall effort over COVID-19 vote," February 24, 2021
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Thousand Oaks Acorn, "On progress, mum’s the word from Parks’ recall backers," June 10, 2021
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Thousand Oaks Acorn, "Anti-lockdown group seeks Parks’ ouster," February 25, 2021
- ↑ San Fernando Valley Business Journal, "Lawsuits Against Defiant Businesses Dropped in Ventura County," March 19, 2021
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
