‘I’m not going to be distracted’: McLean addresses recall effort at City Club meeting
Mayor Lauren McLean, speaking the day after organizers filed paperwork to begin the process to recall her from office, said she is “not going be distracted” by the process and instead will focus on leading the city.
Speaking during a City Club of Boise event moderated by Katherine Himes, McLean said that she does not know the people who launched the effort.
“I’m not going to be distracted by something that’s designed to divide or distract at a time now when it requires me to lead in a way that we didn’t envision, to address the crisis brought on by a pandemic and the economic fallout because of it,” McLean said.
McLean has been in office for just over six months after winning a runoff election in December. She ousted former Mayor David Bieter by winning every precinct in the city except for one — where the candidates tied with three votes each.
Organizers filed a petition Wednesday to recall McLean, saying that she ran her campaign as a moderate candidate but has since come out with a “radical agenda.” They also cited concern with her handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and related shutdowns.
Among others, organizers include Dan Alexander, Joe Filicetti and Karene Alton. Filicetti, an attorney, has represented police officers before, but the Boise police union and the Treasure Valley Fraternal Order of Police both said in Thursday press releases that they were not at all involved in the recall effort.
“The Boise chapter of the International Brotherhood of Police Officers has no affiliation with any recall effort,” said union President Chad Wigington. “We will continue our positive working relationship with Mayor McLean and all members of the Boise City Council. We are one team, one city, with the common goal of making Boise the safest, most livable city in the country.”
If the Ada County Clerk’s Office confirms that all the signatures on the petition were from registered Boise voters, recall organizers will then have 75 days to collect signatures.
Idaho Code says that to hold a recall election, signatures will need to come from “20% of the number of electors registered to vote at the last general city election held in the city for the election of officers,” which according to the Ada County clerk, would mean 26,108 signatures based on the 130,539 people registered to vote in the city of Boise during last November’s election.
To win the election, the recall must garner a majority that equals or exceeds the 23,669 McLean received in November.
It is not clear when that election would be held if they get enough signatures. Deputy City Clerk Jamie Heinzerling told the Statesman on Wednesday that timing would depend on when paperwork was filed, but the election would be when another city election is also being held.
In the meantime, McLean said she would continue to do the job Boiseans elected her to do.
“I remain, day by day, focused on the job that I have,” she said. “And that is protecting this place, protecting our people and moving the city forward at a time that we are being called on to address so much more than we could have imagined being called on to address.”
This story was originally published July 16, 2020 at 1:47 PM.
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