An effort to recall three members of the Camp Verde Town Council has cleared its first hurdle as enough signatures were collected to initiate a new election.
The signatures were delivered to Camp Verde Town Hall last week to start the next step, the verification process.
The recall effort, spearheaded by local resident Cheri Wischmeyer, originally sought to recall Mayor Charlie German along with council members Robin Whatley, Bruce George and Jessie Jones.
German is not included in the current recall effort due to the number of signatures required to recall an elected mayor, more than are needed for other council members.
“It just took too many signatures,” Wischmeyer said.
More than 440 signatures are required to recall the mayor. Just over 330 are required for other council members.
All four initially targeted in the recall effort voted for a sales tax increase in January.
The vote raised transaction taxes — which include the retail sales tax along with a number of other economic activities — from 3 percent to 3.65 percent.
Vice Mayor Jackie Baker voted against the measure, along with council members Carol German and Bradford Gordon.
To read the full story, see the Wednesday, June 17, edition of The Camp Verde Journal.
