Politics

Update: Recall of Flint Mayor Karen Weaver to Appear on November Ballot

August 03, 2017, 5:34 PM by  Allan Lengel


David Peterson, 88, says he got a visit from police. (Facebook photo)

Update: 5:30 Thursday:  Genesee County Clerk John Gleason's office has validated 5,870 valid signatures on petitions for the recall of Flint Mayor Karen Weaver, enough for the measure to appear on the ballot in the Nov. 7 election, WJRT reports.

In the end, the petition drive had 120 more valid signatures than required. 

Weaver had challenged more than 1,200 signatures, alleging fraud.

Flint Police have confirmed that they are investigating allegations that many signatures are fraudulent.

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Report From Tuesday

What the heck's going on Flint?

Flint police officers are making house calls to investigate the validity of voters' signatures on the petition to recall Flint Mayor Karen Weaver, who became nationally known as a result of the Flint water crisis, reports The Flint Journal.

Police Det. Tyrone Booth confirms that the department is investigating a formal criminal complaint into the petitions, but declined to comment on the alleged house calls, citing an open investigation, writes Oona Goodin-Smith of the paper, part of MLive Media Group. 

The department says in a release that it "received numerous complaints from citizens that they were defrauded during the process of the recent recall petition." The mayor, who is he boss of the police department, has also raised allegations of possible fraudulent signatures. 

Some accuse the city of trying to intimidate people.“They are using thug tactics to fight this recall,” Arthur Woodson, who filed the petition, tells the Flint Beat.

The recall was launched after Weaver supported hiring a new company to pick up Flint’s trash. Last summer, Weaver and Flint City Council fought over retaining Republic Services or hiring Rizzo Environmental Services, Michigan Radio reports. At one time, both companies had trucks rolling down city streets emptying trash cans. The dispute ended after Mayor Weaver dropped her support for Rizzo.

Rizzo Environmental Services has been at the center of a major FBI public corruption probe in Macomb County, where several public officials have been indicted for taking bribes to help the company secure contracts.  

David Peterson, 88, tells The Flint Journal he was visited July 27 and it "seemed a little odd."

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Flint Mayor Karen Weaver (file photo)

"I knew I wasn't in trouble because I hadn't done nothing," said Peterson, who said that the officer joked that he was "here to arrest" him when Peterson's daughter let him in the house.

"(The officer) said, 'What I'm here about is signing the recall petition.' I said, 'Yeah, I signed it, and for my wife, too. She has dementia.' Then he left," said Peterson.

Woodson, the petition organizer, posted a video of Peterson talking about his police visit on his Facebook page and wrote:

"Now this is an out right low down dirty shame and Weaver and Chief Johnson should be prosecuted to the fullest for voter and Elderly intimidation. How dare the Chief with Weaver's approval send a Police Officer to Mr. and Mrs. David Peterson's home."

Flint Deputy Chief Devon Bernitter says in a statement to MLive that: "This investigation, like any other criminal investigation reported to the police department, is investigated by police officers. Any other action would be inappropriate."

A forensic document analyst hired by Weaver alleges that more than 1,200 of the signatures were forged or otherwise manipulated. She is challenging the validity of the signatures and hopes to derail the recall.

On July 21, the Genesee County Clerk's office declared that 5,951 of the signatures on the petition for Weaver's recall are valid -- enough to get it on the November ballot. Currently, there are 200 more signatures than necessary.

Some MLive readers are unhappy with the city using police to investigate:

► RealTalk11: This is downright sad. Harassing an 88-year-old man and his wife about signing a Petition to recall Karen Weaver, and it's the Flint Police Department that's doing the harassing. At this point, we're going out of the neutral point to hoping the residents that started the recall petitions, get their wish and this Mayor is removed from office. There has been too much for this City to deal with and the Mayor obviously is not capable of leading the charge.

 


Read more:  MLive


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