A Denton City Council member’s questions remain unanswered after a successful petition led his colleagues to initiate a recall election on the same day his seat is up for election.
The Denton City Council made the unanimous decision during its meeting on February 7 to hold a recall vote for Jesse Davis, council member for District 3, on May 6.
The move to consider a recall election was the result of a petition that began circulating sometime in early January and was hand-delivered to City Secretary Rosa Rios on January 20, Rios said during the meeting.
The petition, which obtained the 254 signatures necessary for filing, aimed to recall Davis for allegedly ignoring “the will of over 32,000 Dentonites.”
First, the petition took issue with Davis not supporting an ordinance that disallowed the “routine arrest and prosecution of persons in Denton accused of committing low-level possession of marijuana offenses,” it read.
Next, the petition called for Davis’ removal for voting against a resolution preventing tax money from being spent investigating and enforcing the outlawing of abortion.
During the meeting, however, Davis disputed the legitimacy of the petition on various grounds. He questioned, for instance, whether those who signed it even knew or understood what they were signing, as he did not think it was reflective of his constituents’ viewpoints.
“There is no independent fact-checking and nobody double-checking,” Davis added during the meeting. “There are things in this petition that are not factually accurate.”
“I also want to point out that I reached out to Ms. Brewer and some of the other folks who circulated the petition,” Davis continued. “These are folks who have never bothered to contact me about any of these issues which are so egregious and our policy differences are so great that I have to be recalled. Never heard back from them. And there’s really only a handful of people among these 200 odd folks who signed the petition who have ever contacted me at all about these issues or anything else.”
On the other side, Angela Brewer, an elector from the petition committee, told the Denton Record-Chronicle in January, “The folks of District 3 made their voices clear in November when they voted overwhelmingly to decriminalize marijuana in Denton.”
With the petition, she said, Davis “could not avoid their voices now.”
Similarly, Richard Gladden, a Denton attorney who lives in District 3, told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that he helped to organize the petition because he “had enough of his right-wing extremist policies” and he wants to see him gone.
During the Denton City Council meeting, it was explained that Davis due to the recall election, his name will appear on the ballot twice in May. According to City Attorney Mack Reinwand, the recall vote ordered by the City Council will be null and void if Davis wins his election, in accordance with the City’s charter.
“Admittedly, it’s going to be a little confusing for the voters,” Reinwand said.