KANSAS CITY, Mo. — An ordinance to set the guidelines for recalling elected officials was tabled Monday afternoon at the Jackson County Courthouse.
It was introduced a week prior by Democratic County Legislator Manny Abarca.
“My ordinance attempts to make that process clearer so that the people can do what they will,” Abarca said in an interview with FOX4 Monday.
In Abarca’s ordinance, it states that at least 20% of the total vote cast for the county executive need to petition to have either him or any elected county official recalled.
County Executive Frank White isn’t responding to questions about a possible petition. The request summary in Abarca’s ordinance is Article XIV, Section 1 of the Jackson County Charter, which states the 20% rule.
White, the Democratic incumbent, beat Republican challenger and former legislator Teresa Cass Galvin by more than 23,000 votes in November 2022. In that race alone, 213,891 votes were cast. Twenty percent of those votes cast would be 42,779.
“Well, I’ve seen that there is an effort to do that right now,” Jackson County resident April LaJune said.
LaJune said she’s not part of the group trying to recall White, but she wants other residents to do it. LaJune ran for the County Legislature as a Republican in November 2022 and lost to Democratic incumbent Charlie Franklin by 4%.
“Manny wants to get reelected,” LaJune continued. “He’s got to do something that’s going to make the people want to vote for him, so that’s why I’m saying, ‘I think it’s a show.'”
“Everyone has an opinion,” Abarca said in response to LaJune’s comment.
“It’s not my intent to do that,” he continued when asked whether he was serious about starting a recall effort.
“That’s up to the people to do, and I think that’s where the people have called for this process to be defined, and alternatively, no one else has done anything else, so I would throw that back to April if that’s what she really wants to do.”
Nobody FOX4 talked to Monday said they were heading up the effort to get the petition started.
