Yellowstone County Attorney approves petition to recall Laurel mayor

The Yellowstone County Attorney’s Office confirmed Thursday a petition to recall the mayor by a group of Laurel residents meets Montana’s statutory requirements for signature gathering.

Mayor Dave Waggoner may face a recall effort — something rarely seen in Montana because of a several hurdles.

As first reported by KTVQ, an effort by Laurel Community Advocates for Responsible Economic Development has not only opposed a projected state psychiatric hospital in Laurel, but residents have been upset by Waggoner’s actions, including absences from city meetings. However, Waggoner also confirmed that he has Stage IV prostate cancer, but told the television station that he does not think it has affected his ability to serve as the city’s leader.

Waggoner told the Daily Montanan he believes the County Attorney was derelict in his duties, and plans to fight the efforts. He said he has retained counsel in the matter.

Meanwhile, residents have been a presence at most meetings, urging the city council to block any proposal by the state to locate a psychiatric facility on a 114-acre parcel of land that the State Board of Investments has a buy-sell agreement to purchase for a 32-bed psychiatric facility.

Montana currently has a state psychiatric hospital for those in the criminal justice system at Galen. But that facility only holds 53 people and as Montana’s population grows, the backlog has continued to be a factor in county jail overcrowding, with long wait times for evaluation or treatment.

Residents are concerned about the proposed site being close to residential neighborhoods, a golf course and most importantly, an elementary school. Information presented to a state legislative committee earlier this week showed that the facility is located a half-mile from Laurel West Elementary, and school district officials have adopted a resolution urging the city council to reject any proposals.

But, residents have also put the blame on Waggoner and the city administrator alleging that they have been working to court the state facility while keeping the public in the dark. At a Jan. 27 city council meeting, residents accused the two of promoting Laurel as a spot for the facility as early as August. Emails show that the city administrator did reach out to the state, but originally proposed a different site. A source working on the project with the state told the Daily Montanan that site was inadequate for the needs so the state started looking at other locations in Laurel.

Yellowstone County’s chief in-house counsel Steve Williams said that the petition to recall Waggoner was reviewed by the County Attorney’s Office and the elections office to make sure the form and petition for the recall meets the state’s requirements and confirmed that it did.

Now, the petition will go out for signature gathering — the next step in a multi-layered process of recall in Montana.

Montana law says, in part, an elected or appointed official may be removed for several reasons:

“Physical or mental lack of fitness, incompetence, violation of the oath of office, official misconduct, or conviction of a felony offense enumerated in Title 45 are the only grounds for recall. A person may not be recalled for performing a mandatory duty of the office that the person holds or for not performing any act that, if performed, would subject the person to prosecution for official misconduct.”

However, the bar to even have a recall election is set high: For elected or appointed officers in municipalities, signature gathering must be done, collecting at least 20% of the qualified electors (voters) who were registered at the last city election. That number is targeted at 840 verified signatures.

Signature gathering is limited to three months, which pegs the deadline date to approximately June 11. From there, the county elections office has 30 days to verify the signatures. If there are at least 20% of the voters, then the recall would be placed on the general election ballot in November.

If Waggoner resigns during the time of the recall petition, he would become ineligible to be appointed back as the mayor, regardless of the rules the city has adopted for appointing a mayoral vacancy, according to state law.  If a recall election of Waggoner is successful, which would require a vote, he would not be eligible for appointment to the office, according to state statute.