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02/21/2007Seven to face recall Feb. 27Judge rejects request to halt township vote
TRAVERSE CITY — Seven Acme Township officials must face recall elections as scheduled next week, 13th Circuit Court Judge Philip Rodgers ruled. Rodgers rejected a request from the officials for a court order to halt the Feb. 27 recall at a hearing Tuesday afternoon. Township Supervisor Bill Kurtz, Clerk Dorothy Dunville, Treasurer Bill Boltres, and trustees Paul Scott, Erick Takayama, Wayne Kladder and Frank Zarafonitis each face recall, stemming from the township board's opposition to aspects of a proposed Meijer store. 
Kurtz
Enrico Schaefer, who represented the Acme officials, challenged the validity of petitions circulated by three of the recall supporters. Assistant Prosecutor Bob Cooney, who represented County Clerk Linda Coburn, argued that disallowing the petitions would be unfair to people who took part in the political process in good faith. Dunville nearly escaped appearing on the ballot after Rodgers invalidated 15 signatures collected by Danny M. Hanna. Rodgers found that Hanna, a longtime resident of the township, had moved to Kalkaska and returned to Acme, but didn't wait the 30 days required by election law between establishing residency and collecting signatures. That eliminated roughly a quarter of the signatures Hanna collected. But Rodgers also ruled against a challenge to signatures collected by two other recall supporters who in some cases filled out some information on the petitions for the people who signed them. Rodgers ruled those petitions would stand because no one questioned the validity of the signatures on those petitions. That restored five signatures to recall Dunville that Coburn had earlier discarded, bringing the number to recall Dunville back above the 496 signatures needed to place her name on the ballot. "It's just one of those days,” Dunville said after the hearing. "I wouldn't want to be without my friends anyway.”
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