Norman recall group says it has enough signatures for mayor

NORMAN — Organizers of the group attempting to remove Mayor Bree a Clark and three city council members for “defunding” police and failing to “uphold the will of the people” said Friday t hey had collected more than enough signatures to support a recall petition for Clark but not for council members Kate Bierman and Stephen Holman.

“What we just did was historic ,” Unite Norman co- founder Russell Smith told about 100 enthusiastic supporters outside City Hall on Friday, the group's deadline for turning in petition signatures. “It's about the issues here in this town. It's about taking our town back. It's about not having radicals in power. This is about centering the shift.”

The petition to recall Clark requires 18,124 signatures, or 25% of registered voters in Norman. The group reported turning in 20,560 signatures Friday in favor of recalling the mayor.

Clark reserved comment until the signatures have been verified by City Clerk Brenda Hall. “In the meantime, I will continue to focus on doing my job instead of worrying about losing my job,” she said.

The petitions for Bierman (Ward 1), Petrone (Ward 3) and Holman (Ward 7) would also require 25% of their respective wards' registered voters. Sereta Wilson, a fourth council member targeted by the group, resigned last month. She represented Ward 5.

Unite Norman needed to collect 1,899 signatures for Bierman; 2,566 signatures for Petrone; 2,574 signatures for Wilson; and 1,453 signatures for Holman to be successful, according to figures provided by the city.

Asked how many signatures the group collected for Bierman and Holman, Smith said, “it's not enough to get there.”

Organizers dropped off 2,917 signatures for Wilson on Wednesday and 3,323 for Petrone on Thursday. Hall has 30 days to verify the signatures.

Are call election looms in January if enough signatures are verified.

Reached Friday, Bierman said her work on the council “was confirmed today with the failure to generate enough signatures for my recall.”

“I stand behind my record and I stand behind my colleagues,” she said.

Smith and co-founder Sassan Moghadam had asked the city to extend Friday's deadline by 10 days, claiming the group's effort to collect enough signatures was hindered by threats, harassment and “criminal fraud.”

“We're ready for the mayor to accept the will of the people and step down,” Moghadam said. “Clearly the people have spoken and she's not their choice.”

For two months, advocates of the recall collected petition signatures on street corners with signs urging passersby to support police. Volunteer and paid petitioners also knocked on doors, organizers said. The group has run newspaper ads saying “Enough is Enough!” and distributed mailers asking residents to sign the petition if they are “tired of the radical agenda being pushed by Norman City Councilors.”

The group kicked off it's recall campaign in June after Clark and the eight-member council voted to reallocate $865,000 from the police department's proposed $31 million budget and “not upholding the will of the people.”