Wasilla city councilman Steve Menard may face a recall action. A petition asking city voters to recall the two- time councilman was turned in this week to the Wasilla clerk just before deadline on Monday. The petition carries more than the required 201 valid signatures of city voters.
Thursday, Wasilla clerk Kristie Smithers. contacted petition co-sponsors Deanna Dedrickson and George M.Taft, Jr. by letter indicating that 203 of the 284 signatures had been validated. That means the petition for recall has been certified.
Smithers says it is the first time that a recall effort would be decided in a special election.
The number of signatures is based on 25 percent of the people who voted in the 2010 Wasilla city election. The local Conservative Patriots Group is behind the recall effort. Petitioners say Menard’s behavior at a Sitka hotel room while on city business in August rises to the level of official misconduct in office. Menard has apologized and admitted to an alcohol problem. Petitioners say Menard is not fit for office.
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APTI Reporter-Producer Ellen Lockyer started her radio career in the late 1980s, after a stint at bush Alaska weekly newspapers, the Copper Valley Views and the Cordova Times. When the Exxon Valdez ran aground in Prince William Sound, Valdez Public Radio station KCHU needed a reporter, and Ellen picked up the microphone.
Since then, she has literally traveled the length of the state, from Attu to Eagle and from Barrow to Juneau, covering Alaska stories on the ground for the AK show, Alaska News Nightly, the Alaska Morning News and for Anchorage public radio station, KSKA
elockyer (at) alaskapublic (dot) org | 907.550.8446 | About Ellen
