Amourence Lee
Efforts to recall Mayor Amourence Lee have been halted after falling short of the minimum signatures required to get it on the ballot, recall supporters announced Friday.
The group, called The San Mateo Recall of Amourence Lee, did not meet the 9,000 signatures needed to trigger a recall election in November over concerns about Lee’s leadership and tactics on the council.
“We were just a little short of where we needed to get,” said Michael Weinhauer, a leader of the group.
Weinhauer declined to disclose how many signatures the group had but said it was close. He cited the short turnaround to gather the signatures, which started in February and needed to finish this week and be turned into the city. Weinhauer said he still viewed the effort as worth it because the campaign had shown a light on their view of Lee’s unfitness for office over concerns about her accountability and integrity.
Lee has pushed back against the recall and on her website has said the efforts took away from issues like community safety, lack of child care options, high housing costs and attacks on marginalized communities, which, according to the San Mateo County Elections Office, would range from $609,000 to $730,800.
In an email statement from Lee, she said, “I’ve been under attack, threatened, and my home vandalized, but I keep my focus on serving our shared vision of an inclusive and prosperous community. San Mateo will continue to raise the bar as a leader in the county. Corrosive efforts to divide us and derail our progress will fail because they do not represent the will of the people.”
Though the city now has district elections, Lee was elected citywide in 2020. A recall would have entailed a citywide vote on Nov. 7. Five former San Mateo mayors supported a recall of Lee, with former state Sen. Jerry Hill, former San Mateo County Supervisor Carole Groom, and former mayors Eric Rodriguez, Maureen Freschet and Claire Mack all calling for a change.
One of San Mateo Recall’s biggest concerns was the Dec. 12 San Mateo City Council meeting when Lee alleged individuals attempted to convince her to support Cliff Robbins, a member of the San Mateo Sustainability and Infrastructure Commission, to be the fifth member of the council to replace Diane Papan, who left the council after winning a seat in the state Assembly. The city asked the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office to investigate the allegations. The investigation took several months and found no evidence of criminal activity or violations for the vote trading and potential Brown Act violations regarding the San Mateo mayoral seat. The group has also cited behavior by a member of the San Mateo Planning Commission who moved a campaign sign during the November elections, with the DA’s Office investigating the issue but deciding against further action. It has also expressed concern about remarks and statements in the 2022 District 5 election between Adam Loraine and Rod Linhares, with Loraine winning the seat.
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(4) comments
Pretty slanted article. The inquiry did not find "no evidence" of criminal activity or violations for the vote trading, it found insufficient evidence to press charges, it again raises "questions" about the Loraine vs. Linhares race which is based on sour grapes and a disagreement over whether the fact that Linhares stands strongly against basic human rights for women is not a valid concern for a local election, and once again does not address the origin of the controversy which was the fact that Diaz Nash and Newsom were determined to allow zero city business to proceed until they had secured the appointee of their choice for the fifth council seat.
Could you be any more inaccurate?
Wow, sounds like it was not so popular after all
Lee says in story that her home was vandalized. Assume she meant the rock thrown through a window, which raises the question of who did it. Was an arrest made? The DJ should do an update since she noted this.
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