During a motion to dismiss hearing Wednesday in Fort Myers Beach Council members John King and Karen Woodson’s lawsuit to have their recall election thrown out, Judge Kyle Cohen is taking a hard look at the petition to recall Councilman John King.
Cohen is not comfortable with Bill Veach and Ray Murphy’s allegation that King violated the Town Charter by allegedly working to fire previous Town Attorney John Herin. Not only is the Town Attorney one of two employees that council members do hire and fire, the petition does not state clearly who King allegedly tried to fire. Cohen believes voters would not be able to determine from the vague way the recall petition was written who the recallers are alleging King tried to fire. Keep in mind King denied the allegations completely but Cohen is not charged with determining whether the allegations are true or not.
Cohen wants King’s attorney to write an order that would deny Murphy and Veach’s motion to dismiss the case. He also wants Veach and Murphy’s attorney to draft an order to dismiss Woodson’s motion to throw out the recall. The judge seems more inclined to allow Woodson’s vague allegations to go through. Woodson’s allegations did not include the firing of an employee as King’s did. Woodson’s allegations were about violating the Sunshine Law and accepting gifts from developers (which she has also denied). In previous court cases, if a court ruled that one of the allegations doesn’t fit the criteria in the statute, the entire petition is thrown out.
The judge gave both sides ten days to submit the orders before he makes a ruling. And, he made clear that he may also decide to change his mind. He said, “I understand my role is to rule on the petition, not the facts of the allegations.”
What could this mean? Depending on the judge’s ruling, it could mean that the Woodson recall election goes forward on the 4th and King’s does not. The judge may rule that the petitioners have to go back and fix their allegations against King and start the process over. If they are forced to do that there’s no way King would be on the recall ballot unless Veach and Murphy won on appeal, and that would have to be done quickly. It could also mean that King’s case to try to get his recall thrown out continues on to a trial.