Athens mayor deems 'unserious' recall effort underway for him, sheriff, DA, commissioner

A recall effort is underway against four local elected officials, according to two people who have spoken out against the local government in the days since the Feb. 22 slaying of 22-year-old Athens nursing student Laken Riley.

Rich Suplita, a retired University of Georgia science professor, and James DePaola, a local street preacher, confirmed that they are circulating recall applications targeting Athens-Clarke County Mayor Kelly Girtz, Athens-Clarke County District 2 Commissioner Melissa Link, Clarke County Sheriff John Q. Williams, and Western Judicial Circuit District Attorney Deborah Gonzalez, whose office covers Athens-Clarke and Oconee counties.

Recall applications are the first step in the recall process and must be followed by recall petitions before a recall election is scheduled.

Riley was found unresponsive on a wooded trail near the University of Georgia’s Lake Herrick where she had gone for a run, a victim of blunt force trauma. The next day, authorities arrested 26-year-old undocumented Venezuelan immigrant Jose Ibarra and charged him with murder and other offenses. Ibarra remains in the Athens-Clarke County Jail after opting not to seek bond.

In the days since Riley’s death, a vocal group of people, including DePaola and Suplita, began calling for resignations and threatening recalls. Those calls are based on concerns that Athens-Clarke County has not been sufficiently tough toward undocumented immigrants and is, in effect, operating as a “sanctuary city.”

An ‘unserious’ recall effort?

Asked for comment on the recall initiative, Girtz called it an “unserious” effort.

“I’m proud of the work I’ve been able to do with Athenians as mayor, and committed to continuing that until the end of 2026,” the mayor said in a text message. “This effort is unserious and I won’t let it distract me.”

Link, somewhat mystified as to why she was the only one of 10 Athens-Clarke commissioners targeted for recall, suggested that such efforts should be based on “actual corruption and signs of criminality.”

Link called the move against her “ridiculous.”

“They always target me,” Link continued, adding that she is “not worried about it.”

“I’m just sorry they’re going to waste our (county government) staff’s time with this,” Link said.

Williams, speaking through department spokeswoman Keith Sims, had nothing to say on the recall.

“He said he had no comment at this time,” Sims said.

Attempts to get comments from the district attorney, through both emails and phone calls to her office, were not immediately successful this week.

What it means to be a 'sanctuary city': Athens area officials offer differing views

Athens alleged status as a ‘sanctuary city’ impetus for the recall

Much of the impetus for the effort to recall the four officials appears to be focused on a resolution approved nearly five years ago by the commission and signed by Girtz.

In part, the resolution states that the county government “is welcoming to people from all lands and backgrounds and strives to foster a community where individuals and families of all statuses feel safe, are able to prosper, and can breathe free … .”

The resolution carries no force of law, but critics contend that, in effect, it makes Athens-Clarke County a “sanctuary city” serving as a haven for illegal immigrants. However, there is no formal legal definition of a sanctuary city, and Athens-Clarke County must certify annually to the state government that it is not acting in such a capacity.

Nonetheless, at the March 5 meeting of Athens-Clarke County’s mayor and commission, Suplita told Girtz and the commissioners that by “implementing sanctuary-type rules behind our backs, without our consent, we the people of Athens-Clarke County demand that you, Mayor Kelly Girtz, Sheriff John Q. Williams, and all city council men and women … willingly and immediately resign for violating your oaths of office.”

Legal reasons for a recall

DePaola and Suplita this week confirmed the start of the recall initiative, saying they had obtained the required paperwork from Athens-Clarke County Elections Supervisor Charlotte Sosebee last week and had begun collecting signatures.

That initial paperwork, a form for collecting signatures of people supporting the four recalls, lays out four broad grounds for the removal of the targeted officials, all within the limitations established in state law for recall efforts.

Grounds for the recall initiative outlined in the application for a recall petition are malfeasance, violation of oath of office, misconduct and failure to perform duties of the respective offices.

The paperwork promises that brief statements more fully outlining the grounds for recalling the four officials will be forthcoming. Earlier this week, Suplita and DePaola spoke in generalities, with Suplita contending, among other comments, that any “taxpayer dollars (used) to support the daily needs of … criminal illegal aliens” constitutes misappropriation of public funds.

How does a recall work?

Athens-Clarke County Director of Elections and Voter Registration Charlotte Sosebee said the recall applications, the first step in an intricate process leading to a possible recall election, were issued March 7 to DePaola and another man who came to the county’s elections office.

Those pursuing the recall applications have 15 days to submit it to her office to verify that enough signatures belong to qualified voters, Sosebee said.

At a minimum, 100 signatures will be required for each recall application, she explained. The number could, however, be lower for Link’s commission district, since her district covers just part of Athens-Clarke County.

In the case of Gonzalez, Oconee County elections officials will have to verify signatures collected in that county for any recall documents, according to Sharon Gregg, director of the Oconee County Board of Elections and Registration.

Previously: Threats of recall issued at Athens officials at meeting that followed downtown rally

As of Sunday evening, each of the four recall applications had just 10 signatures, many of which were the same on all four documents. Most of those signatures came from family and friends, DePaola and Suplita said. The two men this week planned to recruit more people to collect signatures.

Once the recall applications have been returned to Sosebee’s office and she has verified that they contain sufficient verified signatures, she has five days to convene a meeting of the Athens-Clarke County Board of Elections.

The five-member board, comprising three Athens-Clarke County Commission appointees, and one appointee each from the local Republican and Democratic parties, will then authorize issuance of recall petitions for the targeted offices for which sufficient verified signatures have been obtained.

Once again, it is the recall petitions, not the initial recall applications, that will determine whether a recall election will be scheduled.

Signature requirements increase dramatically for recall petitions, with state law mandating that organizers obtain the signatures of at least 30% of voters who were registered and qualified to vote in the last preceding election for the officials targeted for recall.

Recall organizers must get the petitions back to local elections officials within 30 days if fewer than 5,000 signatures are required. If 5,000 signatures or more are required on a recall petition, organizers have 45 days to present the forms to elections officials for verification.

Once the recall petitions are delivered to local election officials, they will have 45 days to determine the validity of signatures on the documents, because more than one official is targeted for recall.

Once the petitions are deemed to have enough valid signatures, Sosebee will call for a recall election to be held “not less than 30 days nor more than 45 days” after that determination.

This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: Athens officials not taking seriously a recall effort now underway