The groups trying to thwart the possible annexation of Wellborn said Thursday they have obtained enough voters' signatures to force recall elections for two members of the College Station City Council.
The announcement by Citizens for Wellborn and SaveWellborn.com came as a group of College Station residents mobilized to counter the recall campaign.
The anti-annexation groups, which have targeted Mayor Nancy Berry and four council members for recall, have already collected the signatures necessary to stage recall elections of council members Katy-Marie Lyles and Dave Ruesink, according to Jane W. Cohen of Citizens for Wellborn.
They have until Jan. 10 to obtain voter signatures for all the council members. The number of signatures must equal at least 40 percent of the vote cast in the last regular municipal election for each elected official's seat.
Also targeted for recall are Councilmen John Crompton and Dennis Maloney. Crompton can't run again due to term limitations, and Maloney has said he will not seek re-election. Lyles, Ruesink and Berry each have at least a year left on their respective terms.
Jess Fields is the only council member unaffected by either the recall effort or next May's general election.
To remove Crompton, the groups need 2,169 voters' signatures; an election to recall Maloney would require 2,164; one for Lyles would take 1,210; one for Ruesink, 1,160; and one for Berry, 1,553.
Meanwhile, a group of College Station residents opposing the recall efforts has emerged to correct what they say is misinformation about the campaign. The group will run an ad in The Eagle next week outlining its position.
"It's irresponsible if the ultimate were to happen in College Station with the recall election," said Steve Arden of Brazosland Classic Realty, who's lived in the Bryan-College Station area for about 35 years.
Arden, however, believes voters will "soundly defeat" any recall efforts put up for a vote.
The group says the recall campaign will not allow Wellborn residents to vote on incorporation, nor will it preclude the possible future annexation of Wellborn. A successful recall, the group argues, would only disrupt the council's normal business for two to three months, delay installation of new traffic signals, delay the city's purchase of anything costing more than $50,000 and prevent the city from dealing with emergencies.
The group's ad includes instructions on how voters can "unsign" the petition.
City officials have said that if the anti-annexation groups gather the signatures required to place all or any of the five elected officials up for recall, May's election would be both a regular election and a recall election.
The recall petitions seek to remove the council members to prevent a quorum from voting on the possible annexation of 681 acres in the Wellborn area. Wellborn residents have been fighting for a year to avoid annexation by the city but failed to get the council to authorize a vote on allowing residents to incorporate their own municipality. Because Wellborn is within College Station's extraterritorial jurisdiction -- an area outside the city limits but under some city control -- city leaders must approve any move for Wellborn to incorporate as a city.
Crompton, meanwhile, issued a statement saying he's concerned that the recall campaign will diminish the quality of the city's governance.
"Unfortunately, the recall petitions are having a profoundly negative impact on the city's high caliber of governance and service," he said, noting that the city has never held a recall election in its history. "The damage obviously will be accentuated if the petitions are successful, and the situation will deteriorate further if council members are actually recalled in an election."
The recall effort fosters an atmosphere of incivility and may deter "honorable and knowledgeable residents" from running for elected office, Crompton said. It also is reducing the pool of senior managers who can be persuaded to take executive positions with the city and encouraging the city's current senior managers to look for opportunities elsewhere.
"College Station's remarkable record of effective city service delivery in recent years is a reflection of the excellence of its staff, especially its senior management team," he said.
But Cohen said that the anti-annexation campaign is the "straw that broke the camel's back."
"The citizens of College Station are tired of their council not listening to them, of getting misinformation and half-information," she said.
Cohen said the city has failed to comply with her open records request regarding Wellborn. She said it took the city six months to fully comply with a July 2 request for information that under state law should have been available in 10 days.
Cohen said that, not only did the request take too long, it was incomplete and didn't include all the information she asked for.
"This means that the city of College Station did not accurately comply with the public information request," she said. "This makes me wonder what other e-mails, notes and memos were not provided."
Acting City Attorney Carla Robinson said the city handled Cohen’s open records request the same as any other request it receives. Robinson said there was much back-and-forth communication between the city and Cohen that delayed the process, but the city acted completely within the law.
Robinson said Cohen had asked for a “voluminous” amount of information, and the city worked with Cohen to narrow her request. Once nearly 400 pages of documents were provided to Cohen, Robinson said the city felt that the request was fulfilled. Robinson said it turns out that Cohen believed a few documents were lacking, but rather than notify the city, Cohen complained directly to the Attorney General's Office. It wasn't until the city was contacted by the AG's Office weeks later that they even were made aware of Cohen's discontent. Those pieces of documentation that do exist are being provided to Cohen, according to Robinson.
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