Town council recall, Coventry, Rhode Island (2025)
| Town council recall |
|---|
 |
| Officeholders |
Alisa Capaldi Hillary Lima |
| Recall status |
| See also |
| Recall overview Political recall efforts, 2025 Recalls in Rhode Island Rhode Island recall laws City council recalls Recall reports |
An effort to recall Town Councilmembers Jonathan Pascua, Alisa Capaldi, and Hillary Lima did not go to a vote in Coventry, Rhode Island, after sufficient signatures were not submitted by the May 8, 2025, deadline to do so.[1][2]
Recall supporters
Recall organizer Stacie Nichols has said, "What we feel now is happening is that town council is circumnavigating the charter of Coventry, which is in place to keep people honest and to bring transparency to our system of government, and we feel like if we don’t take a stand now we’re going to keep going down a road where people are making decisions in ways that aren’t transparent.”[1]
Recall opponents
In a Facebook post, Lima said in part, "The Town of Coventry's Home Rule Charter has not been updated substantially in decades. Many state laws and court decisions have been rendered since it was last updated that impact the validity of sections of our Charter and many parts of our Charter do not and could not anticipate changes in public administration. We need to get a Charter Review Commission seated that combs through this charter line by line to fix that."[3]
Path to the ballot
- See also: Laws governing recall in Rhode Island
Rhode Island allows the following grounds for recall: "Recall is authorized in the case of a general officer who has been indicted or informed against for a felony, convicted of a misdemeanor, or against whom a finding of probable cause of violation of the code of ethics has been made by the ethics commission."[4] The recall of local officials in Rhode Island is governed by local charters. Because of this, recall laws regarding signature requirements and circulation time vary by locality.[5]
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
- Coventry, Rhode Island
- Recall campaigns in Rhode Island
- Political recall efforts, 2025
- City council recalls
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 ABC 6, "Coventry residents organizing door to door recall efforts on town council members," April 15, 2025
- ↑ Ballotpedia staff, "Email communication with Coventry Registrar Marcy Alves," June 10, 2025
- ↑ Facebook, "Councilwoman Hillary Lima," accessed April 24, 2025
- ↑ Constitution of the State of Rhode Island, "Article IV, Section 1," accessed October 16, 2023
- ↑ The Narragansett Times, "Town approves voter recall provision," March 23, 2019
