The effort to recall five city council members in Huntington Beach has suffered a major setback. As the Daily Pilot reports, the group Save Surf City missed a key publishing deadline for Mayor Kim Carr, Dan Kalmick and Mike Posey. They’ll have to go back to square one, publishing notices of intent in the local paper. The group had already spent thousands on newspaper advertising.
In a statement Friday, Save Surf City pointed the finger at City Clerk Robin Estanislau for allegedly giving them the wrong instructions. Those instructions “appear to be intentionally designed to cause failure,” the statement said.
This is the second setback for the conservative group, which initially hoped to recall six members of the council. The recall petition against the council’s newest member Rhonda Bolton was denied because she had not served for more than 90 days as the law requires.
The recall effort has been slammed by Huntington Beach's political class. In a recent op-ed, several former city officials called Save Surf City a bunch of “political agitators and bullies.”
“Not only does the disorganization of the recall proponents point to a lack of seriousness and direction, and garner little possibility of reaching the ballot, these recall campaigns are disheartening and distracting from the real work and business of the City Council," they said.
Safe Surf City still plans to move forward with the recall effort.