The drama in a small California town between its residents and four recalled city council members who refuse to leave office is showing no signs of letting up.
Carrying posters reading “Exit!” and “Get out, not wanted,” dozens of Avenal residents packed Thursday night’s city council meeting, after the elected leaders voted to keep themselves in office despite a landslide recall election.
Shouting matches erupted within minutes between residents and council members, according to local news reports.
“It’s time to step down,” Sheila Verdugo, the wife of the only councilman not recalled, said before she was cut off, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. “Just table this, the whole meeting.”
Avenal Mayor Alvaro Preciado, who was also recalled and has vowed to remain in office until a court removes him, warned that police would escort anyone violating meeting protocol out.
Four officers then approached the audience, prompting several residents to confront them, arguing they had no obligation to follow the directions of elected officials whom they had already ousted in an April special election. Moments later, most of the roughly 40 residents walked out in protest.
In most places, getting recalled means packing up your office and handing over the keys. But in the small California town, it has instead sparked a political standoff that has spilled onto social media, into packed public meetings, and now into the courts.
Kings County District Attorney Sarah Hacker and Sheriff Dave Putnam have warned the recalled officials that they risk legal repercussions if they continue acting as elected officials or authorize the expenditure of public funds.
Ricardo Verdugo, the only city councilman to survive the recall election, cast “no” votes on every item on Thursday’s agenda in protest of his recalled colleagues’ refusal to relinquish their seats.
“It’s simple,” he said. “Just leave. Walk out and step away.”
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 removed four of the city’s five council members, with each recall passing by 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 special election results in May.
But four 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 community, about an hour southwest of Fresno, into an unlikely 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 fight first escalated during a June 11 meeting, when Preciado and recalled council members Leticia Gamez and Pablo Hernandez voted to keep themselves in office. David Reynosa, the fourth recalled councilman, was absent. The council then 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 Appeals declined to intervene, allowing the vote count to continue.
Now, recall supporters are pursuing a different strategy. Earlier this month, California Attorney General Rob Bonta (D) 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 cleared the way for recall advocates to file suit in the state’s 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.
Multiple calls by the Washington Examiner to the mayor and the recalled city council members were not returned.