Data center opponents in Festus filed recall petitions this week for the mayor and three council members.
The petitions are the latest in a series of retaliations against city officials who voted in favor of a proposed hyperscale data center.
The petitions name council members David Boyer of Ward 1, Kevin Dennis of Ward 3, Michael Cook of Ward 4 and Mayor Sam Richards.
Circulators need signatures from 25% of the registered voters in the city or ward affected to get the recall on the ballot.
The petition states the recall is warranted by previous milestones toward the data center project "without adequate public participation, transparency, or consideration of resident concerns."
"Major municipal decisions have been advanced without meaningful opportunity for public input or a vote of the citizens directly affected, demonstrating a failure to competently represent and protect the interests of the residents," the petition reads.
Chuck Hatfield with Stinson LLP, who provides legal counsel for the officials facing possible recall, said the petitions' circulators failed to provide adequate reasoning to recall the officials.
"The reason that these folks in Festus want to recall my clients appears to be that they disagree with their decisions, and that is not a reason to recall somebody in the middle of their term," Hatfield said.
He also requested that Jefferson County Clerk Jeannie Goff send a letter describing how she will calculate the signatures, since the city council recall petition requires signatures from a quarter of registered voters in that member's ward.
"Normally, you do it based on some prior vote, like when you're doing statewide petitions," Hatfield said. "It's a certain percentage of however many votes were cast in the last election, and that's a little easier to figure out. So, she's got some math to do — which I'm sure she can do — but she needs to go through those steps."
Festus resident Erica Carter, who led the campaign for signatures, said circulators had limited space to describe their grievances on the petition.
"Don't know how you could be very detailed with the 200-word limit," Carter said. "What's the logic behind fighting this? Their attorney is saying it's not valid, and I don't understand how that could be."
Carter said residents believe city council members are not performing their duties.
"The majority of our people that I've spoken to want to keep our town how it is," Carter said. "We're not anti-growth, but we want to do it responsibly. And this is not responsible."
Data center opposition group Wake Up Jeffco sued the City of Festus and developer CRG last month, arguing that city officials knowingly withheld public information related to the project.
Voters recently ousted all four city council incumbents in favor of anti-data center candidates following months of backlash against the proposed project.
The city council is still absent one member after Ward 2 member Staci Templeton resigned in April.
Templeton voted in favor of some milestones toward the data center project but most recently voted against an agreement with developer CRG.
Certifying the petition
Jefferson County Clerk Jeannie Goff said the volunteers collected "well above" the number of signatures needed to be considered for a recall. But she said the county clerk's office still needs to match signatures to each person's voter registration to verify that they live in the city or ward.
Goff said that could take every bit of the 10 days before the deadline given to the clerk's office Monday. But Goff said the office has never missed a deadline.
"It's a little time consuming, but we're going to get it right," Goff said. "Nobody wants to work over the holiday weekend, but that's what we'll do."
The Jefferson County Clerk's office has until next Thursday to certify the petitions. If the clerk's office finds the petitions don't have enough signatures, the circulators have 10 days to appeal.
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