HOLLISTER – If proponents of ousting San Benito County District
Attorney John Sarsfield undertake a full-blown recall campaign, it
could set the stage for a contentious and costly special election
next year.
HOLLISTER – If proponents of ousting San Benito County District Attorney John Sarsfield undertake a full-blown recall campaign, it could set the stage for a contentious and costly special election next year.
Head elections official John Hodges believes a special election would cost San Benito County as much, or more, than the October gubernatorial recall ballot – which totaled $113,000.
And with recent orders from the federal government to beef up minority resources, such as printing ballots in English and Spanish, that figure likely would rise even higher, he said.
“Oh boy, with our new rules and regulations with the feds, it could be real costly. It could be real costly,” Hodges said Thursday.
That prospect could put another dent in the county budget. Officials expect the county to break even this year by cutting programs across the board and pulling nearly $3 million from reserves. Though next year the county could face a similar, multi-million dollar shortfall.
One of several arguments from recall proponents, however, is that Sarsfield has and continues to cost the county in expensive litigation. Sarsfield recently agreed to mediate with two workers alleging he’s having an inner-office affair that’s caused a hostile workplace.
It’s among 10 reasons for his removal the “Committee to Recall John Sarsfield” stated in a “notice of intention” filed last week with the Election’s Office. Proponent Bob Wilson served the district attorney with the same legally required notice Wednesday. He’s one of 22 supporters who signed the document.
Wilson on Thursday acknowledged a recall campaign would be a highly scrutinized and potentially quarrelsome process – in a county healing over the Measure G land-use controversy. But he also thinks people would be “excited by the fact that something is actually going to be done” about Sarsfield. The district attorney didn’t return a phone call seeking.
“It’s a really big question,” Wilson said. “Do you really want this guy to stay in office long enough for the bad guys to figure out they can come into San Benito County and get off?”
The committee, meanwhile, realizes the strictness of state laws governing recall campaigns, Wilson said, such as deadlines and rigid requirements on signature petitions. By comparison, the campaign in 2003 to get Measure G on the March ballot was challenged in court because two mandated sentences were missing from its signature petition.
Wilson’s committee would have to gather 4,810 registered voters’ signatures to force a recall election. On the ballot, a recall of Sarsfield would require a majority vote. And like the governor’s race, voters would have the option to choose a replacement, too.
