Council narrowly approves recall election for Councilmember Ronda Miller

District 4 City Councilmember Ronda Miller’s future on the Gonzales City Council will be decided by her constituents on May 3 after council members adopted an ordinance ordering a recall election by a 2-1 vote Thursday, Feb. 13.

Mayor Steve Sucher and District 1 Councilmember Joseph “Poochy” Kridler voted in favor of the ordinance while District 3 Councilmember Lorenzo Hernandez opposed it. Councilmember Mariah Jordan, who previously voted against recall efforts against Miller, was absent Thursday due to a family illness.

Miller did not vote on the ordinance, but not because she wished to abstain. In fact, the embattled official told Sucher prior to the vote she believed she had a right to be part of the decision making process.

“I've been advised, and spoken to people, and I was duly elected to make these sorts of decisions and to vote on things, and I still hold all the privileges and duties that were granted to me from being duly elected, so I am going to actively vote on this,” Miller said.

However, City Attorney Charles Zech of the firm Denton, Navarro, Rodriguez, Bernal Santee & Zech told Miller “you don’t have the authority to vote on your own recall,” to which Miller responded “it's not about the recall, it's about the policies and procedures regarding our charter.”

“This is an agenda item to order the recall election,” Zech replied.

“Where does it say that I cannot vote? Show me something because I was advised that I am allowed to,” Miller answered.

“Unfortunately, I don't represent you in this issue,” Zech said. “Your attorney, Roger … sorry Mr. Borgelt … I would defer you to discuss with him what your rights are with respect to that. But the case law is very clear that you cannot vote on your own recall order of election. The case law is very clear and he can show it to you.”

Borgelt, who was present at the meeting, did not challenge Zech’s comments and the remaining members of the council — Sucher, Kridler and Hernandez — went into a 13-minute executive session to consult with Zech before coming back into open session. Kridler then made the motion to adopt the recall election ordinance, which Sucher seconded.

However, Borgelt did remind council members earlier in the meeting — during the hearing of residents portion of the meeting — that he had sent them a letter last month that he believes the recall petition signed by 276 residents of District 4 lacked specific grounds to charge his client with any misconduct or malfeasance.

“We are not asking you to judge or make a decision upon the grounds or the merits of this recall petition,” Borgelt said. “We're simply pointing out that there are no grounds listed in the recall petition. I've read it over — I don't know how many times — there simply are no grounds listed.

“And your charter specifically says (in Article VI, Sec. 6.03) that a petition must distinctly and specifically point out the ground or grounds upon which a petition is predicated, and also that they have to be stated with such certainty as to give the officer sought to be removed notice of the matters and things with which they're charged.”

Borgelt likened the petition to an “incomplete application.”

“It's as if you filled out an application for a driver's license, but failed to list your address,” Borgelt said. “It simply doesn't meet the requirements of a completed petition.”

Later in the meeting, Miller told her fellow council members and the audience she intends to hold “town hall meetings” to address what she deemed to be “slander and lies” that were being spread about her in the recall petition.

The recall petition allegedly was started by registered voters who reportedly live in Miller’s district and was submitted to City Secretary Kristina Vega on Nov. 4. The petition has 313 signatures and 276 of those 313 signatures were found to be valid.

Article VI, Sec. 6.02 of the City of Gonzales Charter states “any elected city official … shall be subject to recall and removal from office by the qualified voters of the city on grounds of incompetency, misconduct or malfeasance in office.”

A petition has to be signed by qualified voters of the councilmember’s district equal in number to at least 25 percent of the total number of registered voters registered to vote in that district at the last regular City election.

The number of registered voters for District 4 at the last regular election was 1,040 qualified voters. Twenty-five percent of the number of registered voters would be 260, meaning the petition presented has enough verified signatures to meet the threshold.

Miller was notified by certified mail on Nov. 5 and Vega placed the recall petition on the agenda for the Nov. 14 meeting. Pursuant to Article VI, Sec. 6.06, the officer whose removal is sought could request that a public hearing be held to permit the presentation of facts pertinent to the charges specified in the recall petition.

The request had to be submitted within five days after the recall petition was presented to city council and, according to city staff, Miller did not submit a request for a public hearing. Since she did not voluntarily resign, the council was charged, according to the charter with ordering an election to be held on the next authorized uniform election date, which is May 3.

Since the city already has a scheduled election for mayor on the same date and already has budgeted $15,000 for the election costs, there is not expected to be much additional impact, if any, as polls will already be open during the same time period and the same voting machines will be used for both elections.

Only District 4 residents who are registered to vote will be able to cast a ballot in the recall election, however, while all city residents can vote for mayor.