Featured photo of Councilwoman Ladel Lewis by Tanya Terry
Written By Jameca Patrick-Singleton and Tanya Terry
After a recall effort against Flint City Councilwoman Ladel Lewis (Ward 2) recently failed, two more recall petitions were filed against Lewis.
According to Genesee County Clerk Domonique Clemons, only 722 of the necessary 785 of signatures required to proceed with the initial recall effort were valid, leaving the process 63 valid signatures short of triggering a special election.
Initially, there were 1,022 signatures submitted to the clerk’s office. Some reasons that signatures were disqualified include missing circulator information, missing addresses and people writing their birthdate as opposed to the signature date.
According to the Genesee County Clerk’s Office, 87 pages of signatures were submitted to the City of Flint Clerk’s office on September 12. However, the City Clerk’s Office misplaced six of the sheets. After determining which sheets were misplaced, the county clerk was able to submit copies of those sheets, which included 47 of the 722 validated signatures.
The collection of signatures to recall Lewis is a result of recall language that was approved in June of this year. The language centered around Lewis not attending a May 20 meeting called by Sixth Ward Councilwoman Tonya Burns to address resident questions about the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding from the federal government as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
On October 5, Sherry Allen filed two new recall petitions. Allen is the same Flint resident who filed the failed petition.
One of the new filings is again centers around Lewis being absent from the special city council meeting that was held on May 20 to answer resident questions on ARPA funding.
The other new petition is centered around Lewis voting on a brownfield redevelopment plan for the former Buick City site. At the time she voted, Lewis was serving as president of the Sarvis Park Neighborhood Association. She had recently accepted a donation of $1,500 from a committee associated with Ashley Capital, the commercial development firm affiliated with the project. Some Flint residents have argued that this presented a conflict of interest and that therefore Lewis should not have voted.
At 1 p.m., on Oct. 20, The Genesee County Election Commission is holding a hearing to determine if the new petitions will be accepted. The hearing is taking place in Probate Judge Jennie Barkey’s courtroom.
