WALDPORT — An attempt to get a recall election of four of five Port of Alsea commissioners on the May ballot has failed to gather enough signatures.
A recall of port commissioners was first threatened during a meeting last July. Kurt Saindon asked the board to fire port manager Roxie Cuellar because she would not change locations for crabbers using the marina and claimed other marina restrictions were impeding commerce. He said he would file for a recall if the rules were not changed.
But it wasn’t Saindon who filed the four recall petitions certified by the Oregon Secretary of State’s office and approved by the Lincoln County clerk Jan. 17. The chief petitioner is Jim Hill of Waldport.
However, county clerk Amy Southwell told YachatsNews Tuesday that it was Saindon who called her Monday to say they lacked sufficient signatures for the Monday, March 20 deadline.
The petition sought a recall election of commissioners Joe Rohleder, Rob Bishop, Jan Power and Buster Pankey. Commissioner Chuck Pavlik was not named.
The petitioner had 90 days to collect signatures from at least 15 percent of the number of people who voted for governor in the port district last November. Considering the size of the port’s public facilities, the district is surprisingly large and includes Tidewater, Waldport and Yachats and miles up the Alsea and Yachats rivers. There are 7,115 registered voters in the port district, and 767 signatures were needed to get recall questions on the May 16 ballot.