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Omar Medina recall, Santa Rosa City Schools, California (2024)
| Santa Rosa City Schools recall |
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| Officeholders |
| Recall status |
| Signature requirement |
| See also |
| Recall overview Political recall efforts, 2024 Recalls in California California recall laws School board recalls Recall reports |
An effort to recall Omar Medina from his position as the Trustee Area 4 representative on the Santa Rosa City Schools Board of Education in California did not go to a vote in 2024. Recall supporters did not collect enough signatures by the filing deadline.[1]
The recall effort began in March 2024. To get the recall on the ballot, supporters would have had to collect 2,709 signatures in 120 days.[2]
Medina was first elected to the seven-member board in 2018.[3]
Recall supporters
The organization Safe Campus Alliance filed the notice of intent to recall Medina.[2] On their website, the group listed the following reasons to recall Medina:[4]
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Recall opponents
In response to the recall effort, Medina said the recall group's rationale was misinformed. “To imply that I don't care about safety, that I'm not meeting my responsibility — I think that's absurd,” Medina said. “I care about safety a lot. And that's just reality. Maybe people don't interpret my actions in that way, but safety and security are different things, and what safety means to me, might not be exactly what it means to others. And how we address safety, we may have different opinions. But I do care about it very much.”[2]
“A big motivation for me to run for office from the get-go has been to make sure that voice that hasn't been historically represented on the board is heard,” Medina said in response to one of the reasons for recall. “To have everybody reflect every voice, I think is inaccurate.”[2]
Path to the ballot
- See also: Laws governing recall in California
No specific grounds are required for recall in California. The recall process starts with a notice of intention to recall. The notice must be served to the officer whose recall is being sought as well as published in a newspaper of general circulation. The notice must then be filed with the relevant election office. Once the notice has been deemed sufficient by the election office, a petition must also be filed and approved by the election office. Once the petition is approved, it can be circulated. To get a recall on the ballot, supporters must collect signatures from registered voters in the jurisdiction. The number of signatures required is between 10% and 30% of registered voters in the jurisdiction, depending on the size of the jurisdiction. Jurisdictions with 1,000 registered voters or fewer require 30%, and jurisdictions with 100,000 or more registered voters require 10%. Charter cities can also set their own signature threshold. The amount of time allowed for the circulation of recall petitions also varies by the number of registered voters in a jurisdiction, between 40 and 160 days. Jurisdictions with fewer than 1,000 registered voters allow 40 days, and jurisdictions with more than 50,000 registered voters allow 160 days.[6]
To get the recall against Medina on the ballot, supporters would have had to collect 2,709 signatures in 120 days. The required number of signatures was equal to 20% of registered voters in the school district's Trustee Area 4.[2]
2024 recall efforts
- See also: School board recalls
Ballotpedia tracked 40 school board recall efforts against 83 board members in 2024. Recall elections in 2024 removed 14 members from office, including three who resigned before the election, and retained seven members in office. The school board recall success rate was 13.4%.
The chart below details the status of 2024 recall efforts by individual school board member.
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
- Santa Rosa City Schools, California
- Recall campaigns in California
- Political recall efforts, 2024
- School board recalls
- States that allow school board recalls
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ The Press Democrat, "3 of 4 Santa Rosa City Schools board incumbents won’t run again, it looks like the races to replace them will be uncontested," August 13, 2024
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 The Press Democrat, "Parents move to recall Santa Rosa City Schools Trustee Omar Medina over campus safety issues," March 25, 2024
- ↑ Santa Rosa City Schools, "Meet the Board," accessed April 15, 2024
- ↑ Safe Campus Alliance, "Info & Updates," accessed April 15, 2024
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ California Secretary of State, "Recall Procedures Guide 2023," accessed October 16, 2023
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