Recall petitions go to county

To qualify for a spot on the ballot, the petitions had to bear the signatures of at least 205 registered voters living within the city of White Salmon. Recall proponents believe they met the criteria.

"We ended up with more than was needed," said Mike Zitur, one of the members of the recall group. "The Auditor's Office has yet to canvas and go through authorization, but we feel pretty good about it at this point."

The Auditor's Office has 10 days to review the petitions and verify that the signers are registered and live within the city limits.

A source within the Auditor's Office said the staff will begin verifying the signatures on June 20. The process is expected to take about two days to complete.

If the signatures check out, the Auditor's Office has set a tentative timetable of early August for a special recall election. The ballot question would essentially be a "Yes" or "No" vote on whether Mayor Holen should be recalled.

Zitur said he was pleased with the swift turnaround on the signature-gathering process.

"By law, we had 180 days," Zitur explained. "We just got the petitions on June 2, so instead of 180 days we needed just nine. The fact it took just nine days points out how the community feels about the situation with the police chief and the mayor's handling of city affairs. Now we can have the special election and the vote will go before the public."

Mayor Holen declined to make a statement about the filing of the recall petitions.

"I don't have any comment at this time," Holen said.