UPDATE: Appeals Court Denies Effort To Block Recall Elections; Timeline Questioned
The Texas Eighth Court of Appeals in El Paso has denied a request by Mayor John Cook’s attorney to reinstate a restraining order halting the recall effort against him and city representatives Susie Byrd and Steve Ortega.
The group El Pasoans For Traditional Family Values started the recall effort after the elected officials voted to continue providing health insurance for gay and unmarried partners of city employees, overturning a voter-approved initiative aimed at taking those insurance benefits away.
Cook is out of town, but his attorney Mark Walker released this statement: “We are evaluating whether there are any further steps that we can take at this time to prevent an election from being called based on petitions circulated and submitted in violation of the Texas Election Code.”
Walker is referring to Cook’s claim that the recall group may have broken Texas law by using churches to gather recall petition signatures. Tom Brown, a leader of the recall effort, counters no violations have occurred.
As the recall process moves forward, many public speakers challenged the timeline for the recall elections against Cook, Byrd and Ortega at Tuesday’s city council meeting. The filing deadline for a recall election to make it onto this November’s ballots has passed.
City officials said the only exception is to petition the governor of Texas to approve a petition calling to change the date of a special recall election. Officials said they will send a petition, but added such petitions are only granted in catastrophic emergencies.
