The man who has vowed to recall Mayor Al Pinheiro for allegedly
picking on police and ignoring crime issues has yet to file the
necessary paperwork to begin his campaign, but he claims he’s
waiting for the mayor to return from Portugal next month before the
fight begins.
The man who has vowed to recall Mayor Al Pinheiro for allegedly picking on police and ignoring crime issues has yet to file the necessary paperwork to begin his campaign, but he claims he’s waiting for the mayor to return from Portugal next month before the fight begins.
To save the city money on election costs, conservative activist Mark Zappa said he plans to fold his still-nascent recall campaign into the June 2010 primary election. Piggy-backing on an election like that would likely cost the city about $75,000, according to City Clerk Shawna Freels, who received estimates from the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters. However, costs vary wildly – up to $400,000 for a special, isolated election just for Gilroy – depending on how many other cities are splitting the price. Zappa has said he would never force the city to spend that much money and has also indicated he may time the recall for the November 2010 general election to save Gilroy even more money.
“I am also awaiting the mayor’s return from his lengthy stay away from the daily dangers of life in Gilroy. Upon his return from his villa in The Azores, (Portugal), we will resume our public campaign and will soon thereafter begin circulating petitions for his ouster,” Zappa wrote in an e-mail.
The mayor has repeatedly characterized his annual trips across the Atlantic as both personal and business-related, as his wife owns a travel agency and he is planning on spending more time there someday after he retires here.
“As for Mr. Zappa and his exaggerations of the place being a Villa or my absence from the day to day of Gilroy I assure you that I am in daily contact via email and will use conference calling in some cases to attend a meeting that may be necessary to be there,” Pinheiro wrote in an e-mail from the Azores.
If voters recall Pinheiro before his term ends in 2012, the city charter requires the council appoint a successor until voters can elect a permanent replacement in the next municipal election. Pinheiro has said voters – 54 percent of whom elected him in 2007 – would vindicate him in any recall.
City Clerk Shawna Freels said Tuesday she had not received any notice or petition from Zappa to review. There has never been a successful recall in Gilroy, but forcing a ballot measure requires about 3,700 signatures from the 18,500 or so registered voters here. But before Zappa can start gathering names, Freels must first review the petition under very specific state election codes. Those rules allow the mayor to pen a formal rebuttal that would appear on that petition, Freels said.
If Zappa gathers enough signatures within a 120-day window – which he has said won’t be a problem – and Freels certifies them, then the council has 14 days from its next regular meeting to order an election. The election has to be held no less than 88 or more than 125 days after the order, Freels said. A denial from the council would prevent nothing, though, because an “apolitical” county election official will just call the election if there are enough signatures.
Zappa, who was involved in a successful recall more than a decade ago in Morgan Hill, did not answer many questions about his current effort.
“There is also discussion on adding one or two additional councilpersons to the recall. Stay tuned,” he wrote in a recent e-mail.
However, Zappa did not say which councilmembers that could be, and he did not answer questions about who or how which other people he is working with.
Zappa enjoys tacit support from the Gilroy Police Officers Association. The entire union issued a “no confidence” vote in the mayor in July and officers on their own time have circulated a mailer critical of the council. Although a divided 56-member Gilroy Police Officers Association approved contract concessions last month with the council to save $1.1 million through furloughs and other cuts, both Zappa and the POA have fingered Pinheiro as belligerent toward police and ignorant of public safety issues.
