FULLERTON : Growing Recall List Includes Mayor

Mayor Molly McClanahan was added to a list of recall targets Friday when she was handed recall papers at her home.

The main complaint against McClanahan was her support of a 2% utility-users tax the City Council approved earlier this month.

McClanahan joins Councilmen Don Bankhead and A.B. (Buck) Catlin, who also voted July 6 to approve the new tax, on the recall list.

City Clerk Anne M. York, also served this week with recall papers, said she will ask the council to appoint someone to take over her duty as the monitor of recall campaigns.

York was chosen for recall because she decided this week that the formal petitions against the two council members had more than 200 words--the maximum allowed, thus delaying the recall drive.

The organizers of the recalls then served Catlin with a shorter recall paper on Friday. Bankhead also received a shorter version on Thursday.

The mayor and the council members are also being charged with failure “to properly oversee the operations of the city.”

“People do their level best to be of service,” McClanahan said. “These kinds of things make it kind of a thankless job.”

Catlin and Bankhead were first given recall papers at the packed July council meeting, where the 2% utility tax was imposed. About 500 angry residents demonstrated their disapproval of the tax and scores spoke against it.

Council members Chris Norby and Julie Sa opposed the tax. They argued that the city could cut spending by the $1.6 million the tax is estimated to generate in the 1993-94 fiscal year.

To hold an election, the recall organizers will have to collect signatures from 15% of the city’s 55,527 registered voters. A recall election will cost between $60,000 and $70,000, according to the county.