Posted: Friday, May 30, 2008 12:00 am
The Lebanon Citizens Alliance for a Responsible Education System (CARES) announced Friday that it will initiate a recall of Lebanon School Board member Debi Shimmin.
"The members of CARES and this community feel betrayed by Ms. Shimmin. She has broken almost every promise she made during her campaign," said CARES president John Kennedy. "Her votes have been consistently irresponsible and potentially unlawful and will ultimately lead to more litigation against the Lebanon School District. We feel we have no choice - Ms. Shimmin must go before more damage is done."
CARES decided against seeking a recall of board members Josh Wineteer and Rick Alexander because their terms expire next year while Shimmin has three years left on her term, Kennedy said.
Shimmin has sided with Wineteer and Alexander in passing several controversial motions since taking office last July, including putting Superintendent Jim Robinson on administrative leave last August pending a performance evaluation, an action she voted to reverse in September under advice from the board's legal counsel.
"We intend to recall Ms. Shimmin immediately and wait for next year's election for Lebanon voters to remove Mr. Wineteer and Mr. Alexander," Kennedy said. "We believe that with Ms. Shimmin removed from the Board, Mr. Wineteer and Mr. Alexander will have a difficult time pursuing their personal agendas and damaging actions through the next election."
Almost every member of CARES supported Shimmin in her campaign including co-chairs of the recall effort, Joyce Weatherly and Connie Schmidt, who were both strong advocates of Shimmin when she ran for election in 2007, Kennedy said.
"We believed we were getting an independent, fair-minded board member," Weatherly said. "What we got, however was the exact opposite."
CARES cited the following examples of what it says are Shimmin's irresponsible or potentially unlawful actions:
€ Voting to increase funding to Sand Ridge while facing significant cuts in public schools.
€ Refusing to hire two quality administrators without explaining her inaction or showing up at a meeting to reconsider their hiring.
€ Voting in favor of a contract with PIE drafted and negotiated by fellow board member Josh Wineteer without requesting the advice of the school district's attorney.
€ Refusing to support board policy that would end last minute additions to the agenda without the public being aware of the changes, and by her own admission, failing to follow appropriate procedures when she voted to place the school superintendent on administrative leave.
Once CARES files the recall petition with the Linn County Clerk's office, it will have 90 days to collect signatures equaling 15 percent of the total votes cast for governor in the 2006 general election by voters in the Lebanon school district, said John Ramirez, Linn County supervisor of elections. Once the required number of signatures are submitted, the clerk's office has 10 days to verify that there are enough valid signatures to qualify the recall.
If enough signatures are collected, CARES and Shimmin would be notified, at which point Shimmin would have five days to resign or file a statement of justification as to why she should not be recalled. An election must be held within 35 days of the justification statement filing.
Kennedy said CARES will file the necessary paperwork early next week, and expects it will need to collect about 2,000 signatures.
Shimmin could not be reached for comment Friday.