PAHOKEE — One local resident who’s signed on to help with the Pahokee citizens pressing a petition-signing effort to request a recall vote against three city commissioners, has been keeping people up to date about it via social media.

Over the past several weeks and months, Catherine Marvez — who was a frequent contributor to commission meetings while they were still in-person (before March) and has kept up her Facebook posts and citizen comments via sending remarks to the acting clerk to be read at the meetings — thanked the local Save-A-Lot store “for allowing the voices of ALL Pahokee citizens to be heard without fear of retaliation, harassment or shunning as is sometimes present in municipal recalls across the country. Your business deserves better, and we thank you.”

She went on to write: “I am so pleased with the outpouring of citizens, registered voters, who are now coming forward to demand that this city is run for the citizens and run in the proper and transparent manner as is required by law. Keep those signatures coming; we are so close but not yet there. We need you! Your city needs you! Stop being ignored by your representation!
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“I have witnessed attempts by some to stifle your right to voice your opinions as well as phone calls to complain and threaten, but rest assured, those attempts are being monitored and are baseless. Note, this is EXACTLY one of the many issues we are done with!

“Time for change — change for the better! Poor job performance no more!” she finished a post on Oct. 21.

JoAnn Culberson, another of the organizers, commented, “If anyone I know wants me to come to them (with a petition to sign), let me know.”

Marvez also wrote a screed denouncing Mayor Keith Babb’s contention, stated in this past week’s meeting and also via Facebook, that the organizers of the recall petition drive are acting from racist motives because all three commissioners they seek to oust are black. Commissioners Clara Murvin (vice mayor) and Benny L. Everett III are also named.

Marvez responded: “Let me clear up some misinformation being spread. Many of us have stepped up to volunteer with the petitions for recall with the group who has filed it. We are now ... collecting signatures around the city and will be available for anyone who is interested in signing. Some who fear retaliation from the dais have come forward privately, and that is understandable and OK, too. We are not campaigning for signatures. We are simply making petitions available for those who want to see change for the betterment of your city ... We are tired of watching a serious lack of growth because they just can’t do it and refuse to try and do it right!”

She called out an action by City Manager Chandler Williamson on Tuesday, Oct. 27.

“CM just entered (an) $11,000 raise for himself IN CASE he decided to ask for one. With IG reports and possible criminal investigations looming, this is unacceptable. One commissioner, (Regina) Bohlen, requested that that budget amount item be given to the staff instead ... it was voted down.”

Marvez stated, “It’s time for everyone to have their say without threat, bullying or shunning. So enough with the distraction race cards and the attempt to pull magic rabbits out of a hat as a last-ditch Hail Mary pass to save yourselves. You allowed these opportunities to pass you by many times in the past few years.”

She also described what supposedly happens if the petition garners the required number of signatures, 304. “The group will be immediately removed from office per Florida Statute 100.3,” she wrote.

However, according to Florida and municipal law, a committee of various local officials and the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Office would have to review the petitions first, verify that the signatures are all valid and belong to registered voters in the City of Pahokee, and only then would a recall election be conducted, such as the recent successful one in Sebastian, in Indian River County, that recalled the city’s mayor and other commissioners.