Recall effort halted 'for now'

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Recall effort halted 'for now'

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The

effort to have all five Fayette County

commissioners removed from office will continue,

says organizer Denise Fair, but not right now.

Fair

said last week she had intended to begin a new

application for recall of the commissioners, but

after reflection Tuesday changed her mind.

"Soccer

is occupying a lot of my time right now,"

she said. "Soccer is done in May."

She

said she still intends to begin again on the

recall effort, but it will probably be too late

to include the three commissioners who are

currently facing reelection - Harold Bost,

Herb Frady and Glen Gosa. State law forbids

conducting recall elections involving public

officials in the last 180 days of their terms.

Fair

promised to work against Frady in his reelection

bid, and against commission Chairman Bost if he

should decide to run for reelection. Gosa has

announced that he will retire from the board.

"I'm

still going to be watching and listening,"

Fair said Tuesday.

"I

was stunned," she said last week after the

county Elections Board voted unanimously to

disqualify recall applications filed by Fair and

John Regan.

The

person who notarized the applications also signed

them as a sponsor, and that's not allowed

according to Georgia law.

Fair

and Regan began their recall campaign after

commissioners unanimously voted recently to build

a new county jail and courthouse on the site of

the old one, in downtown Fayetteville. The two

were among about 300 residents who actively

pushed commissioners to build a new jail outside

Fayetteville's downtown area.

The

recall applications accused the commissioners of

violating their oath of office, in which they

promised to "work in the best interests of

the entire county." They failed to serve the

best interests of Fayetteville residents by

refusing to evaluate alternative locations for

the planned jail, or to consider forming "a

committee, to include citizens, to discuss the

proposed jail issue," according to the

applications.

Recall

advocates also cite a violation of the open

meetings law last March. When commissioners

learned that they had conducted a closed meeting

in error, they alerted the press and submitted

information about the mistake to local court

authorities. The county solicitor's office

declined to prosecute the commissioners, saying

there was no intent on their part to violate the

law.

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