Let’s Talk: The Halifax County Recall Effort

We haven’t had a straight up opinion piece in a while here on SouthsideCentral, so we’re dusting off the “Let’s Talk” category and getting one done.

Today, a recall effort was officially started in Halifax County. The goal is to get Bryant Claiborne, Lottie Nunn, Barry Bank and Larry Giordano recalled from office. It’s a stupid idea that will never succeed and it only adds more divisiveness to the entire sad situation.

Let’s look at the News & Record’s article about this.

Recall effort inititated (sic) for Halifax County supervisors

Now, let’s talk. For starters, the burden is very high to have a recall petition succeed at the circuit court level. Here’s the relevant part of the state statute.

Upon petition, a circuit court may remove from office any elected officer or officer who has been appointed to fill an elective office, residing within the jurisdiction of the court:

1. For neglect of duty, misuse of office, or incompetence in the performance of duties when that neglect of duty, misuse of office, or incompetence in the performance of duties has a material adverse effect upon the conduct of the office

The rest of the statute deals with things like selling drugs, criminal convictions and sexual battery so I’m not going to deal with that here. Stupidity and stubbornness isn’t a crime. Let’s go over these clauses one-by-one on a Big Board.

1. “neglect of duty” – Even though the Halifax county Board of Supervisors is still deadlocked in the 4-4 tie, they haven’t neglected their duty. Amazingly, they’ve came together when they’ve had to in things like handling the insurance issue and proceeding with the county budget. If they fail to pass a budget before the clock runs out, that’s “neglect of duty”. That’s not going to happen because all of those big dummies know exactly what has to be done.
2. “misuse of office” – No. Nothing. Not even close to this. Next clause.
3. “incompetence in the performance of duties when that neglect of duty, misuse of office, or incompetence in the performance of duties has a material adverse effect upon the conduct of the office” – Whew. That’s a mouthful. We need to key in on “material adverse effect” and there isn’t any. David Smith, the leader, created his own artificial deadline of May 15th for the board to elect a supervisor. they didn’t so he went ahead with this effort. As soon as somebody folds and defects, things will return to normal and no “material adverse effect” will be felt. The public’s short attention span is well noted here at SouthsideCentral and it’s going to happen yet again here.

So there you go. None of those three clauses apply here so even if this “group” (more about that later) comes up with the needed signatures, the petition is going to be summarily denied by the circuit court judge. Game over.

Now, let’s talk about the divisiveness here. It’s obvious that David Smith is a supporter of Team Bowman as he only wants to eject Team Claiborne. Let’s be real. Team Claiborne has been the ones sticking it to Team Bowman for their previous boorish behavior. I’ve gone on record saying that Team Claiborne is fighting on the correct side of this issue. If Smith really wanted to make some change, his recall effort would be for all the board and just not the ones that he clearly his against. It’s bad when eight elected officials bitch at each other up on the dais. It’s worse when citizens yell out at the board from the audience. Picking sides in a recall effort is the worst yet… even if this recall effort is a stupid idea that will never work.

Let’s finish up by asking “Who else is associated with HCVA Citizens United for Effective Government”? Their press release says “Concerned citizens, led by David Smith”, but doesn’t mention anybody besides David Smith. Their website has no information about who these “concerned citizens” are. In fact, it doesn’t even mention David Smith’s name. As sneaky and dirty as Team Bowman has played, I’m not yet convinced that this wouldn’t be another trick for them to try against Team Claiborne. Yes, I seriously consider that possibility. It’s gotten that bad.

This recall petition effort is Dead On Arrival. It has no chance of succeeding even if it gets to the signature threshold and is presented to the circuit court. David Smith may get a bunch of stupid people saying “HELLS YEAH LET’S GET RID OF THEM” but he’s not trying to get rid of them all. He’s trying to get rid of the ones that are against the ones that he likes, and he’s going to fail at doing that.