CORTLAND — City council on Monday approved a resolution setting Feb. 3 as the date for a special election to recall Mayor Deidre Petrosky.
Last month, residents submitted a petition containing 511 signatures to Council Clerk Rhonda Horn to be submitted and certified by the Trumbull County Board of Elections.
For a recall election to take place, the village charter requires the mayor to have served more than six months of her term and a petition for recall to be signed by at least 20% of the electors voting in the last general election. There were 1,901 electors in last month’s general election.
Officials with the board of elections said the petition needed to have at least 381 signatures and it had 511, of which the board found 488 signatures to be valid.
Several residents at past meetings had asked for Petrosky to resign and she had five days from the certification of the petitions on Nov. 25 to do so, but she chose not to step down.
Petrosky said at the Nov. 17 meeting when the petitions were presented to Horn that she would not resign as mayor.
“I am not going to resign. We have done many projects. I have a responsibility to the city of Cortland to finish these projects,” she said at the time. “I want the entire city to weigh in on this.”
Petrosky and members of city council entered into an executive session at Monday’s meeting, with Petrosky unable to be reached for additional comments.
Residents Jerry Bayus and Rita Dodd, who have been among the residents wanting Petrosky to resign, said the recall will let the residents of the community decide the mayor’s future.
“It is a shame things had to go this far, but that is where we are at now,” Bayus said.
Dodd said Petrosky should have resigned and saved the city the expense of a special election, which is estimated to cost between $7,000 and $10,000, according to Council President Kevin Piros.
“This is a democracy. In a democracy is where the voters speak. If the residents feel the mayor should be removed, that is their decision to make,” Piros said.
Councilman Richard McClain voted no on the recall because he wants the election to take place sooner than Feb. 3. Piros said the earliest the election could take place is 60 days after Petrosky was served with the petition, which would be Jan. 19. That is Martin Luther King Jr. Day, which is a federal holiday.
Bayus and Dodd said residents have been upset by many decisions made by Petrosky and the controversy that arose when council did not support her selection of Sean Ratican as city service director.
Bayus said there are too many contracts handled by Petrosky that they get “blindsided by,” citing a recent garbage contract as an example.
Bayus, Dodd and other residents at past meetings said the petitions were circulated because of concerns about how Petrosky has acted at meetings this year, noting her “unprofessional way of working with council and overseeing operations of the city,” what she has said both publicly at meetings and in emails to council, and leaving some meetings during citizens’ comments.
“The city can’t operate this way. She has sent demeaning and scolding emails to council members after they voted against her ordinances,’’ Bayus said.
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