Recall effort reaches petition requirement
The organizers of an effort to recall Town of Fort Myers Beach councilmembers John King and Karen Woodson announced they have secured more than 600 petitions for the recall, enough to force a recall election if verified by the Lee County Supervisor of Elections.
The petitions are expected to be submitted to the Town of Fort Myers Beach Clerk’s office today.
Former Town of Fort Myers Beach Councilman Ray Murphy and former Councilman Bill Veach are heading the committees to recall King and Woodson over allegations the they worked together in violation of the town’s policies and the Sunshine Law to attempt to replace former Town Attorney John Herin Jr. in 2023, and violated town policies by allegedly accepting gifts from parties seeking land use approvals from the town.
Woodson is separately accused of violating the Sunshine Law by discussing the Fort Myers Beach Pier with Vice Mayor Jim Atterholt, while King is separately accused of working to remove town employees.
The allegations have led to a lawsuit by King and Woodson funded through the town to stop the recall effort. Both King and Woodson have denied all of the charges as false through their Sarasota-based attorney in a lawsuit to stop the recall.
Murphy and Veach needed to get 505 signatures to cover 15% of the registered voters in the Town of Fort Myers Beach voters in order to force a recall election of King and Woodson. They had previously obtained more than 450 signatures in the first round, when they were required to obtain 337 signatures to capture 10% of the electorate.
King and Woodson were granted approval of attorney fees through a resolution of the Town of Fort Myers Beach Council ahead of their filing the challenge to stop the recall, for which they have submitted more than $11,000 in attorney fees to date from the town.
In their lawsuit, King and Woodson charged that the recall complaints did not provide enough specific information about the allegations and were too vague.
Murphy and Veach responded to the suit in court this week through Miami Lakes attorney Mike Pizzi in which they have sought to dismiss the lawsuit
Veach said the allegations in the lawsuit from King and Woodson that the complaints in the recall should have been made to an ethics commission, are not a valid response to stopping the recall.
“It’s not an ethics complaint,” Veach said. “It’s an electoral process, not a criminal process.”
In their response to King and Woodson’s response issued this week, Pizzi said the legal challenge “should be dismissed because it misstates black letter Florida Law and is an effort to improperly used the Courts to take away the absolute right of the voters to decide f they wish to retain or recall the elected officials. The Florida Courts have held time and time again that the Courts’ have no role in judging the veracity of the language of facially sufficient recall language. The courts have also held, as is consistent with the directives of the Florida legislature, that Recall Petitions are not designed to be a trial brief or treatise on the basis for the recall, but simply to put the elected officials and the public of what the basis is.”
The lawsuit also notes that by state law the recall allegations are limited to 200 words.
Under state law, the grounds for setting a recall are limited to allegations of malfeasance, misfeasance, neglect of duty and incompetence.
King and Woodson did not respond to messages seeking comment on the response to their lawsuit.
Veach said he questioned the town approving the attorney fees for King and Woodson before they had filed their lawsuit to stop the recall.
While the resolution by the town council approved “reasonable attorney fees” to defend against the recall, Veach believes the attorneys for King and Woodson have gone beyond simply defending against the recall through actions taken in their suit.
“It’s an electoral process. We are not intending to file a suit to get Karen and John in trouble,” Veach said. “We are just trying to get this in front of the voters.”
If the Lee County Supervisor of Elections certifies the petitions, King and Woodson would have five days to vacate their seats or a recall election would be held within 60 days. The town council could vote to name their replacements if they resigned. If voters recalled King and Woodson, another election would be held within 60 days to replace their seats.
The final election could potentially be held as late as January. King and Woodson’s terms expire in November of 2026.
Murphy and Veach said the challenge was difficult to do during the summer when the majority of voters in the town are off island, and back up north. “The success in getting these signatures in the offseason is an indicator this isn’t a small group,” Veach said.