The Cottonwood City Clerk’s Office has registered two petitions to separately recall City Council members Derek Palosaari and Lisa DuVernay.
The clerk’s office received the petition to recall DuVernay on Nov. 7. The deadline to collect the 361 signatures needed will be March 6.
“On Aug. 8, 2023, City Council member Lisa DuVernay showed pornographic video at the Cottonwood City Council meeting,” the recall petition stated. “There were children present. She also appeared to threaten legal action against the city if the mayor did not instruct staff to draft a city ordinance which had already been voted against by the majority of the council.
“On Oct. 3, 2023, when concerns were addressed about the appearance of nepotism if her husband sat on the Planning and Zoning Commission, DuVernay insisted she would abstain from voting on any issue on which it might appear inappropriate. She then voted her husband onto P&Z. Because DuVernay does not appear to understand the policies and procedures of the council and city staff and because she does not appear to be concerned about wasting taxpayer dollars in pursuit of her personal agenda, I request a recall vote of the citizens of the city of Cottonwood, Arizona so the taxpayers can decide if she should continue to serve on the City Council.”
The clerk’s office received the petition to recall Palosaari on Jan. 2. The deadline to collect the 518 signatures needed will be May 1.
“At the Dec. 19, 2023 Cottonwood City Council meeting, it was revealed that council member Derek Palosaari admitted to sexually harassing city of Cottonwood employees,” the recall petition stated. “The admission was made before the mayor, city attorney and city manager. The admission was confirmed by a human resources investigation. There is no mechanism to remove a City Council member except the recall process; therefore this petition seeks to recall him from the position to which he was appointed.”
Cathy Ransom, who submitted both petitions, said that she started the DuVernay recall petition after DuVernay played a pornographic video during an August council meeting in an attempt to mislead the public about the dangers of drag shows for children.
“The video was completely inappropriate and also was a false representation of the family friendly drag show held in Cottonwood in April,” Ransom said.
Ransom also started the petition because of DuVernay’s ongoing push to impose an ordinance that would ban minors from attending adult-oriented entertainment, specifically drag shows labeled all ages, over the advice of the city’s legal counsel. The vote to draft such an ordinance already failed by a 4-3 vote on Aug. 8.
“We must not waste city tax dollars defending an unwinnable legal battle because DuVernay is trying to make a name for herself as a moral crusader,” Ransom said. “The fact that she refused to condemn Palosaari’s mistreatment of city employees demonstrates that she is not really interested in ethical behavior; she’s interested in promoting herself and her agenda. Our small rural town has better things to do with our tax dollars. Without a recall, she will be in office until 2026 and can cost us a lot of money between now and then.”
Ransom started the recall petition for Palosaari after the council failed to condemn his sexual harassment of city employees.
“Because there is no other mechanism for removing him from office, the recall petition is the only way to show that the voters will not tolerate mistreatment of anyone by our city council members,” Ransom said.
Ransom said that she has seen interest in both petitions and believes that they will get the required number of signatures. She also plans on vetting the signatures prior to presenting them to the clerk to make sure enough of the signatures meet the eligibility requirements, unlike a previous recall of Mayor Tim Elinski by another group in which 28% of the signers were legally ineligible.
After the Yavapai County Recorder’s Office receives the petitions that have completed the city clerk’s signature review, the county recorder will have 60 days to verify that the signatures belong to registered voters who live within Cottonwood’s city limits.
The Cottonwood City Clerk’s Office will then determine if the final tally of verified signatures is fewer or greater than the threshold and either accept or reject the petitions. The clerk will then have five days to notify the filer and two days to notify the council members.
If the petitions succeed, the council members will have five days to choose whether to resign or to campaign in a recall election. If the petitioners, city clerk and county recorder can complete all of the requirements by Feb. 21, Palosaari and/or DuVernay will face recall during the election on Tuesday, May 21; otherwise, the earliest date for a recall election will be the regular council election on Tuesday, Aug. 6.
