The Township Clerk has certified that the petition to recall Ellen Ritchie from office of Third Ward Council person has sufficient signatures and is in compliance with the recall law. In other words the Petition is valid. The only thing that will stop the recall now is if Ms. Ritchie resigns within 5 business days or challenges the validity of the petition within 10 business days.
Barring either of those there will be an Election on September 11th (this date, an unfortunate coincidence was set by law). The certification of the petition was covered on WCTC radio.
A non-partisan group of over thirty people chaired by TUF's Chip Hoever began the recall in response to the unethical methods Ms. Ritchie used to pass the Jack Morris development planned for Rt. 27, between Bennett's Lane and Veronica Ave. The ill-conceived project would put a Home Depot and several other stores on the already traffic jammed Rt 27 and 664 housing units on Bennets Lane. Educating the children from these homes will require a new school and cost taxpayers $28,000/day. This dwarfs the one time $20,000 cost of the special election.
The ballot will have two questions. The first is:
Shall Ellen Ritchie be recalled from the Office of Franklin Township Council - Third Ward? Yes or No.
The second question will be who will replace her. Both the Democrats and Republicans are expected to run candidates. TUF will not endorse either candidate. We will of course strongly endorse voting YES for the recall.
