Has recall gone the way of Dodo bird

Interesting, less than four hours after posting the blog below, wondering if the recall effort was dead, telephone calls were received by the reporter covering city hall, and I received two e-mails saying the effort was very much alive and signatures were being collected.

Several locations, which will be in Tuesday's newspaper, were listed where city residents could find the petitions to be signed and several pages of signatures reportedly had been turned in at the Dils building headquarters office of the recall effort.

Apparently illness kept the recall organizers from returning e-mails last week.

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Has the Parkersburg Tea Party-led recall effort of the mayor and five city council members died?

For weeks tea party leaders were in the news vowing to study the procedure needed for a recall and then to begin collecting signatures to force a recall election of the mayor of Parkersburg and of the five city council members who voted in favor of imposing the $2.50-a-week user fee on all who work inside the city limits.

The tea party members cited the user fee and other disagreements with the mayor and council members as the reasons for the recall petition effort, even though there was no movement to have a referendum vote on the user fee, which seemed odd.

For more than a week News and Sentinel reporters have attempted, to no avail, to contact the more vocal tea party leader to learn what the status is of the purported recall petitions, have they been formed, have they been distributed, where they are available and/or who has the petitions.

The most vocal of the tea party supporters has not returned any e-mails, making me wonder if the recall effort has gone the way of the Dodo bird and died off.

I have to admit, considering the absurd cost of putting the recall vote on the ballot and then the selection process for replacing any who might be ousted from office by recall, the recall seems too expensive and too cumbersome to take before voters, especially since there will be an election in less than two years.