Palmer Council recall petitions rejected

PALMER — All four recall petitions filed against members of the Palmer City Council have been rejected by Palmer Clerk Designee Kristie Smithers, with assistance of attorney Scott Brandt-Erichsen of Keene & Currall, PPC. Notices to recall applicants Cindy Hudgins and Kristie Mercer were sent by Smithers detailing the insufficient grounds for recall stated within the applications, among other reasons.

“I have decided to reject the application for recall of Council Member (Julie) Berberich because her current term in office has less than 180 days remaining. AS 29.26.290 (a) provides that a petition may not be filed within 180 days of the end of an official’s term in office. Therefore, it would be impossible for a proper petition for recall of Ms. Berberich from her Council seat to be accepted as sufficient. Because it would be impossible for the proposed petition to be certified as sufficient, I have not evaluated the remainder of the application,” wrote Smithers.

Recall petitions were filed against Council members Julie Berberich, Brian Daniels, Dr. Jill Valerius and Deputy Mayor Sabrena Combs.

“I’m pleased to hear that all four recall petitions were rejected. I think we can all see this for exactly what it was, timely defamation, right before the city election. Unfortunately, we had to waste valuable tax payers’ dollars, in addition to the misuse of Kristie Smithers’ time,” said Berberich.

Statements of denial of the recall petition for Combs, Daniels and Valerius are all similar.

“The petition applicant seeks to recall Ms. Combs from the position of Deputy Mayor, which is not a position elected by the voters subject to recall. 2. AS 29.26.260 (a)(1) requires the signatures and residence addresses of at least ten municipal voters who will sponsor the petition. The application contained nine sponsors who could be verified as municipal voters. One of the sponsor signatures was illegible, and a printed name was not provided. Therefore, that sponsor could not be verified as a municipal voter. 3. AS 29.26.260 (a)(3) requires a statement of 200 words or less of the grounds for recall stated with particularity. The grounds for recall stated in the application do not meet the legal requirements for recall,” wrote Smithers.

Berberich is up for reelection this cycle, along with Councilman Steve Carrington. The two incumbent candidates are running against Lee Henrikson and Pamela Melin.

“The words within the statement submitted total less than 200 words. The extra documentation that was submitted is outside of the 200 words or less grounds for recall allowed by AS 29.26.260(a)(3), and if incorporated would far exceed the 200 word limit. Therefore, the extra documentation will not be considered in the evaluation of the statement submitted by the sponsors,” wrote Smithers. “This statement, even informed by the remainder of the statement of grounds, lacks sufficient particularity to provide the official with notice of how they are alleged to have committed misconduct or failed to perform prescribed duties.”