DIXFIELD — The Board of Selectmen reviewed a preliminary draft for a Recall of Elected Officials Ordinance during Monday evening’s board meeting.
At a board meeting on Aug. 25, 2014, selectmen reviewed drafts of recall ordinances from several Maine towns, including Mexico, Peru and Rumford, and agreed to review them to figure out what would work best for the town.
At the board meeting Oct. 13, 2014, selectmen voted to place a recall ordinance before voters at the June 10, 2015, referendum.
Town Manager Carlo Puiia said that he has continued going through a draft of the ordinance, looking for ways to improve it.
“I put the issue on the back burner for a little while because we’ve been busy lately with different issues, but I wanted to make sure to get back to it at the beginning of the year,” Puiia said.
Puiia said that one of the major changes he made to the ordinance was to change the requirement for signatures on a recall petition to 20 percent of the number of votes cast in the last gubernatorial election, or approximately 231 signatures.
Selectman Mac Gill said that he thought 20 percent was too high of a requirement, and that 10 percent was too low.
“I would request that we make the requirement 15 percent of the number of votes cast in the last gubernatorial election,” Gill said. “That would be about 175 signatures. To me, that’s not so high that you can’t reach the number, but it also doesn’t make it easy.”
One resident asked the selectmen what other towns had used for the percentage.
Puiia said that Peru and Mexico required 10 percent of the number of votes cast in the last gubernatorial election, with Lisbon requiring 15 percent and Rumford requiring 25 percent.
“It really depends on the population of each town,” Puiia said. “Fifteen percent would be a good number to go with for Dixfield.”
Puiia said that he removed a section of the ordinance that required a minimum amount of residents to vote at the recall election.
“I talked with a citizen recently who said that there is no other election that requires a minimum amount of voters to show up,” Puiia said. “I thought he brought up a good point, and for that reason, I didn’t put that section in this draft of the ordinance.”
One component added to the ordinance included a section allowing a resident who signed the petition to remove their name from the petition by filing a signed written request.
“This exists so that if people find out they signed a petition and didn’t exactly understand the details, they can withdraw their name,” Puiia said.
Puiia said that he would write up a final draft of the ordinance for the selectmen to approve for the June 10 referendum ballot.
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