Delta County residents begin process to recall three county commissioners

DELTA COUNTY, Mich. (WLUC) - Official efforts are underway to recall three members of the Delta County Board of Commissioners.

On Monday, papers were submitted to begin the effort to recall Delta County commissioners Robert Petersen, Dave Moyle and Robert Barron. The common reason cited in these submissions was the commissioners’ votes to terminate Delta County Administrator Emily DeSalvo’s contract in February.

“We made a decision as a board, and a number of people are in disagreement with that. The process that we have in this Constitutional Representative Republic allows them to go for recall for quite a variety of reasons, and this is one that they’ve picked to use on us three,” District 3 Commissioner Robert Barron said.

Barron said the next step is a hearing on July 17 to determine if the proposed recall language is acceptable. If accepted varying amounts of signatures from each district will be needed to advance the process.

More than 1,000 for District 3, 666 for District 4, and around 1,000 for District 5.

The group Delta County Citizens for Ethical Leadership is part of the recall effort. Its Social Media Manager Christiana Reynolds said the group is confident it can get the required signatures.

“We’ve already had a lot of people in the community reaching out to us and asking can I sign yet. Where’s the petition and if it is ready and we have to say no. We’re not ready and we’re almost there. When everything goes through, we will hit the ground running,” Reynolds said.

The commissioners can appeal the petition language if it passes the review process, which would halt signature collection. Both Barron and Petersen said they would appeal the recall.

“I don’t feel that there’s been anything that we have done to warrant this. We’ve gotten the business of the county done at every meeting,” Petersen said.

Reynolds said the motivation is to hold the three commissioners accountable.

“The end goal is to replace the three commissioners with people of integrity with commissioners who are going to really listen to the public and represent us in an honest and truthful way,” Reynolds said.

If the recall language is accepted, signatures for each petition will need to be turned in by Aug. 4.

If enough are gathered, the three commissioners could then be up for a recall election in their districts.

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