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Mayor and city commission recall, San Benito, Texas (2024)
| Mayor and city commission recall |
|---|
 |
| Officeholders |
Pedro Galvan Thomas Goodman II Deborah Morales Joe Navarro |
| Recall status |
| See also |
| Recall overview Political recall efforts, 2024 Recalls in Texas Texas recall laws Mayoral recalls City council recalls Recall reports |
An effort to recall Mayor Rick Guerra and City Commissioners Pedro Galvan, Thomas Goodman II, Deborah Morales, and Joe Navarro did not go to a vote in San Benito, Texas, after organizers did not submit sufficient signatures to trigger a recall election by the deadline to do so.[1][2]
Recall supporters
Julian Rios was involved in organizing the recall effort. He gave a lack of financial transparency as the reason for the recall effort. Rios said, "They are just wastefully spending our taxpayer dollars, you know, they paid out the former city manager. They brought in a new city manager, you know. So, you're talking about almost $500,000, you know, worth of expenditures and paying one out, hiring a new one. You know, it's just the direction that the city is headed under their leadership is not very good."[1]
Recall opponents
Regarding the recall effort, Goodman said, "We have to bring the city together," and "We’ve become our own worst enemies trying to work to keep our city progressing. There are many good things happening in San Benito — residential development, commercial development. There are entertainment venues and more. I don’t understand what the purpose of all this is. There are no perfect politicians."[3]
Path to the ballot
- See also: Laws governing recall in Texas
No specific grounds are required for recall in Texas. The recall of local officials in Texas is governed by local charters. Because of this, recall laws regarding signature requirements and circulation time vary by locality.[4]
According to the San Benito City Charter, "A Petition filed with the City Secretary demanding the question of removing an elective Officer or officers be submitted to the electors, must be signed by a minimum of (35%) or five hundred (500), whichever is greater, of those voters who actually voted in the election when the elective officer was last elected to his or her current office. If an officer subject to the recall petition was not elected into office by public election, then the recall petition must be signed by a minimum of six hundred (600) of those eligible to vote at the last regular election."[5]
The recall effort began on September 19, 2024.[1]
Recall context
- See also: Ballotpedia's Recall Report
Ballotpedia covers recall efforts across the country for all state and local elected offices. A recall effort is considered official if the petitioning party has filed an official form, such as a notice of intent to recall, with the relevant election agency.
The chart below shows how many officials were included in recall efforts from 2012 to 2024 as well as how many of them defeated recall elections to stay in office and how many were removed from office in recall elections.
See also
- Ballotpedia's Recall Report
- San Benito, Texas
- Recall campaigns in Texas
- Political recall efforts, 2024
- Mayoral recalls
- City council recalls
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 MSN, "San Benito residents file petition to recall all city officials, fight charter election," October 25, 2024
- ↑ myRGV, "San Benito says recall petition lacked required signatures," November 12, 2024
- ↑ myRGV, "San Benito residents petition to recall commissioners, stop charter election," October 22, 2024
- ↑ San Antonio Express-News, "Unusual ballot features Fredericksburg councilman as recall target and mayoral contender," May 3, 2012
- ↑ City of San Benito, "City Charter," accessed October 29, 2024
