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Grand Island recall petition falls short
It was a daring and controversial move, filing an affidavit to recall Grand Island Mayor Jay Vavricek. But with deadline day Friday the last name was signed on that recall petition.
The outcome? No recall. Jeb Wolsleben needed to collect around 3300 signatures from registered voters in Grand Island. "I was glad to see people standing up and basically telling the Mayor, you're wrong. That this is not where we want to go as a city and we want to go with somebody else," said Wolsleben. The total? About 100 signatures short, but that's assuming each one could be verified. "The week that I was gone when my father passed away really hurt the recall efforts," Wolsleben said. Regardless, a number of people braved the cold to sign the petition Friday. "We need to go a different direction with our leadership in this town," said Thompson. "Mr. Vavricek has done some shaky things," Wayne Franklin said. Wayne Franklin signed the petition and collected signatures around town. "The council, they're against it, they've signed, fire dept signed, and I'm sure there's alot of the policeman did too," said Franklin. "I did have firefighters come down and sign. They were upset with the Mayor on the handling of the firefighter issue," said Wolsleben. Members of the Grand Island Fire Department, Police Department, and even City Hall employees signed. Grand Island City Council Member Larry Carney signed the petition along with four other council members. "I've spent a little time viewing what's going on down here at the library," said Carney. "We didn't see a lot of young people, A lot of people that were here were older people who pay attention to what's going on in GI. They vote." Even with this large stack of papers full of thousands of signatures, they still came up just a little short, but many are hopeful that this will still send a message. "I think it does. How serious it is taken is another thing. But yes it does send a message," Carney said. "I think the message has been sent already that things need to change and hopefully they will," said Thompson. "I do feel that this is still a success whether we get all the votes or all the signatures or not," Wolsleben said. News 5 contacted the Mayor and he declined to do an interview. On Monday the Mayor will hold the first Advisory Council Meeting. Twenty three citizens have been selected by Mayor Vavricek as a way to gain greater community awareness on topics. Jeb will not be turning the signatures in Saturday to protect people's privacy. If Jeb turned the signatures in they would become public record and he says he wants to respect those that may work for the city, fire and police departments. |
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