PAHOKEE — The Pahokee Recall Committee is contesting the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Office’s determination that some of the petitions presented to the city Nov. 12 were photocopies and, thus, ineligible to be considered in the effort to recall three sitting city commissioners.

The committee claims that is false, however, and points to a record of correspondence between the parties recently released to the committee by the SOE Office and made available to the Lake Okeechobee News.

The committee alleges that there was illegal wrongdoing associated with the acceptance of the petitions by city hall and city officials’ subsequent five-day delay in submitting the petitions to the Palm Beach County Clerk of Courts Office, which was required to be done “immediately” on the day they were received according to Florida Statutes. (Committee representatives simultaneously provided the county clerk’s and SOE offices with documentation that the petitions were submitted to the city on Thursday, Nov. 12; however, they were not received by the clerk’s office from the city until Tuesday, Nov. 17. In the meantime, as reported in previous editions of the Lake Okeechobee News, some of the recall subjects either contacted signers of the petition or had family members do so.)

This recall effort targets Pahokee Mayor Keith W. Babb Jr., Vice Mayor Clara “Tasha” Murvin and City Commissioner Benny L. Everett III. His seat is up for election on March 17, and Everett did not file to run for re-election; however, he would still be subject to a recall election if the process is completed before he relinquishes his seat on the commission.

Month’s delay in SOE answer

After receiving long-awaited documentation that included portable document files (PDFs) of the petition tallies and rosters from the office, the Pahokee Recall Committee, chaired by Pahokee citizen Annie Coore, released a statement Monday, Dec. 28:

“The committee is confident that it has a sufficient number of properly executed recall petitions for each of the three commissioners to proceed to the next phase of the recall. According to the Supervisor of Elections Office, there were a number of photocopies of original petitions which were supplied by (City Manager) Chandler Williamson five days later than provided for by Florida Statute to the SOE Office. The SOE will not recognize photocopies, only original signed petitions.

“The Pahokee Recall Committee delivered ONLY original recall petitions to the City of Pahokee. The Pahokee Recall Committee, after a meeting with SOE officials, is of the belief that the city manager may have, possibly on purpose, removed a number of original petitions, copied same and reinserted photocopies in order that there would be an insufficient number of original petitions for the SOE to count, thus, theoretically, nullifying the actual results of the recall petition and disenfranchising the registered voters of Pahokee from participating in what was otherwise a legal process.

“We are aware that he (Williamson) had conversation(s) with Pahokee City Attorney Bernadette Norris-Weeks. We further understand, from the SOE office, that Ms. Weeks has had past experience dealing with Palm Beach County elections.”

Said an adviser to the committee who asked not to be named: “We are hopeful that the supervisor of elections will reconsider some of the recall petitions. ... Wendy Link, the supervisor, is contacting the state attorney, on our behalf, in order to explain what appears to be unfolding here. The supervisor is trying to be cooperative, although it has taken some strong correspondence from the Pahokee Recall Committee and our meeting, last week, with Annie Coore (chairwoman) and Johnny Gonzalez (committee member) with Amber at the Supervisor of Elections Office to get the material (outlining) which names have been rejected.

“We have spoken with a lawyer in Palm Beach County (who) specializes in municipal election law and is willing to come on board, if required. The City of Sebastian did require a lawyer and was the first city in Florida to successfully pull off a recall of three city commissioners.”

Some of the people involved in that successful recall of three city commissioners in Sebastian earlier this year have joined in the effort with the Pahokee Recall Committee. The adviser said, “ I do not believe they were dealing with the level of potential corruption that exists in Pahokee.”