05/07/2006

Recall effort undergoes review by state officials

BY Christine Finger

cfinger@record-eagle.com

TRAVERSE CITY — The Michigan Secretary of State's office will review a complaint about multiple committees that formed to recall Elmwood Township's supervisor.

Supporters of township Supervisor Derith Smith, who fended off recall May 2 by just over 100 votes, suspect the pro-recall committees were formed to circumvent state election financial reporting laws.

"It looked unusual," said Nancy Doughty, co-chairwoman of the Committee to Support Derith Smith. Doughty's group filed a complaint last week with the Secretary of State.

Two anti-Smith groups — Elmwood Citizens for Honest Officials and Elmwood Township Alliance — filed with the Leelanau County clerk's office as political committees.

Ellie Lessard is listed as treasurer for ECHO, which was created in November, and her husband, former harbormaster Charles Lessard, is listed as the treasurer for the ETA on its April 20 statement of organization.

Ellie Lessard denied wrongdoing and said ECHO and the ETA were formed by two different groups of people who contacted her and her husband.

"There are two committees because there was a group of people interested in seeing her (Smith) recalled who didn't want to be part of ECHO," she said. "Some were interested in the recall for different reasons."

Both pro-recall groups sent multiple pre-election mailings to township residents. At least two of those pieces — one listed as paid for by ECHO and the other listing the ETA — include paragraphs of identical content.

The mailer listed as being paid for by ECHO also lists the name of a group called Elmwood Citizens for Honest Government. The county clerk's office has no filing for a group by that name.

Ellie Lessard said she had not heard of the name Citizens for Honest Government and was not directly involved in producing literature mailed by for either of the pro-recall groups. She dismissed the campaign finance complaint and said the groups did nothing improper.

"I'm not concerned about it," Lessard said.

Both pro-recall groups and the pro-Smith committee initially claimed a campaign finance reporting waiver, stating they did not expect to receive or spend more than $1,000, and were not required to submit pre-election finance reports by the April 21 deadline.

ECHO amended its filing this week, and stated it had exceeded the $1,000 threshold. The group will be required to file a post-election campaign finance report by June 1 with the Leelanau County clerk.

Doughty said her group collected and spent just over $2,000 on pro-Smith mailings and also will file a post-election statement. The committee intended to publicly disclose a list of contributors and expenses even if it had spent less than $1,000, she said.

Secretary of State spokeswoman Kelly Chesney said the department would review Doughty's complaint and all parties would have a chance to respond before officials rendered a decision.

See related story:

• Supervisor survives recall election - May 3, 2006