Judge Denies Mayor’s Request For Temporary Injunction On Recall

Recall organizers are one step closer to possibly ousting Mayor John Cook and city Reps. Steve Ortega and Susie Byrd from public office.

Judge Javier Alvarez has denied Mayor John Cook’s request to temporarily freeze recall efforts. Cook sued some of the recall organizers, alleging they broke the Texas Election Code by circulating the recall petition at churches, which are non-profit corporations. In a counterclaim, the recall organizers’ lawyer, Joes Oster, claims the organizers’ constitutional rights to free speech were violated by the mayor’s suit and the Texas Election Code.

Cook’s lawyer, Mark Walker, points to Section 253.094 of the Texas Election Code, which states “a corporation or labor organization may not make a political contribution in connection with a recall election, including the circulation and submission of a petition to call an election.”

Oster points to a 2010 U.S. Supreme Court decision, in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission that forbids “the government from suppressing political speech on the basis of a corporate identity.”

“The day of reckoning — April 14th — will be a special day for us,” Sal Gomez, one of the recall organizers named in Cook’s suit, who gathered signatures to oust the mayor, said. “And I predict victory. And as I said before, the mayor’s going to go down.”

The mayor along with the two city representatives are facing a recall because they didn’t implement a voter-approved ordinance to take away the health insurance of gay and unmarried partners of city employees.

“Should I, as the mayor knowing that that many people were going to be hurt, and retirees in the future would be hurt, could I just stand there and having the power to do something about it, and not do it,” said Cook.

He is referring to the more than one hundred unintended people city officials said would also lose their health insurance, if the vaguely-worded ordinance would have taken effect. The ordinance was written by El Paso for Traditional Family Values, the same group trying to recall the mayor. They wrote the ordinance, without the help of an attorney, after city council, in a budget hearing, extended health benefits to 19 city domestic partners. Ordinance supporters said they did not want their tax dollars funding the health benefits of unmarried couples and people in homosexual relationships, which some believe are an abomination to God. The health benefits are not completely tax-payer funded. City employees also pay for their insurance.

Cook said he was “frustrated” with the process, especially because Judge Alvarez, during a hearing, said it was obvious state law had been broken. The judge said that before Oster made his final arguement, in which he presented the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision about limiting free speech.

“They (thought they) knew better than the thousands of people who went to the polls and they threw out our vote, that is unconstitutional, that is anti-American and that is anti El Paso,” said Ignacio Padilla, a recall organizer.

“However the recall turns out, I’m at peace with it because I stood up for what I thought was right and didn’t fear the consequences”, said Cook.

The Mayor said he’s not sure if he’ll appeal. He has to consider the cost, since his legal bills are “in the hundreds of thousands of dollars”, Cook said.

There is a parallel lawsuit filed by one of the churches Cook accuses of circulating the petition. Jesus Chapel church and its pastor Warren Hoyt are suing the city and the state. They argue the election code is unconstitutional because it forbids them to participate in a political activity allowed to other Texans.

KVIA POLL:Do you agree with the ruling that allows the recall election to continue?