In most places, getting recalled means packing up your office and handing over the keys. In Avenal, California, it apparently means showing up and acting like it never happened.
Three city councilmembers, including the mayor, in the San Joaquin Valley community are refusing to give up their seats after voters overwhelmingly recalled them in April, setting off a political standoff that has spilled onto social media, into packed public meetings, and now into the courts.
Avenal is home to roughly 13,000 people, with about one-quarter of its population housed at Avenal State Prison, one of the area’s largest employers. The city’s economy is also heavily tied to agriculture, and more than 80% of residents are Latino.
Voters there removed four of the city’s five council members, with each recall drawing at least 75% of the vote. The effort stemmed largely from controversy surrounding changes to the city’s fire protection arrangements, according to the Fresno Bee. Kings County certified the results in May after residents overwhelmingly backed the recalls during a special election on April 28.
But three of the ousted officials have refused to step aside, arguing the election was improperly conducted by Kings County rather than the city and therefore should not be recognized.
The dispute has turned the small farming community about an hour southwest of Fresno into the unlikely setting for a local-government sequel to election-denial politics, with residents and recalled officials locked in a fight over who actually won and who still gets to govern.
The standoff escalated during a June 11 city council meeting, when recalled Mayor Alvaro Preciado and recalled council members Leticia Gamez and Pablo Hernandez voted to keep themselves in office. David Reynosa, the fourth recalled councilmember, was absent, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The council proceeded with business as usual, approving the city’s budget even as recall supporters presented a restraining order seeking to force the officials from office.
The legal battle began before the recall election was complete. In April, the targeted council members asked the courts to stop the election, but California’s 5th District Court of Appeal declined to intervene, allowing the vote count to continue.
Now, recall supporters are pursuing a different strategy. On Wednesday, California Attorney General Rob Bonta authorized a quo warranto action, a little-used legal proceeding that challenges whether a public official is lawfully holding office. Under state law, the attorney general’s approval is required before such a case can proceed.
The decision clears the way for recall advocates to file suit in the state superior court.
In his opinion, Bonta wrote that “the application raises a substantial legal issue and resolution of that issue would serve the public interest.”
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The fight has pushed Avenal into unusual legal territory. Derek Muller, a University of Notre Dame election law professor, told the San Francisco Chronicle that quo warranto actions are rarely used in modern election disputes, making the city’s standoff an unusual test of how courts handle elected officials who refuse to leave office after a successful recall.
Calls to the mayor and the city councilmembers were not returned.