Mark Webb

CANYON CITY – The proposal to recall Grant County Judge Mark Webb will go to the voters in a Nov. 4 election.

The Oregon Secretary of State’s office certified the recall petitions last Friday, Sept. 25, and notified both Webb and the chief petitioner, Mike Ledgerwood.

Officials said the petition drive netted 705 signatures of registered Grant County voters, eclipsing the 515 needed to advance the recall drive to a vote of the people.

“We’re going to have an election,” said Ledgerwood, noting that he was happy with the final count. The pro-recall group Committee for Responsible Government in Grant County had collected 804 signatures, but he said they knew that some could be ruled invalid because they weren’t registered voters or the signatures didn’t look right.

“I figured we would lose more than that,” he said.

Ledgerwood said the committee was going to meet to plan strategy for the election.

Another group is forming to support Webb and oppose the recall.

King Williams said 25-30 people attended a meeting on Thursday, Sept. 24, to back Webb.

“We had a good group there, and we have lots of support,” Williams said.

Calling themselves Citizens Against Recall, the group must file organization papers with the state to campaign, but can’t file until Oct. 1. Williams said they will file that day and also hold a 5 p.m. meeting at the Outpost Restaurant.

The recall process allows Webb five days from certification to either resign or file a statement with elections officials in Salem. That statement is supposed to discuss his performance in office and could also rebut the recall group’s contentions, but it can be no more than 200 words.

Both Webb’s statement and the statement that was printed on the recall petitions will be published with the ballots.

The state law on recalls requires a relatively quick election process, with just 35 days allowed between the official’s response and the election date.

County Clerk Kathy McKinnon said the timeline puts the election at Wednesday, Nov. 4. ballots will be mailed to voters Oct. 20, she said.

Webb reaffirmed last week that he intends to fight the recall. He said he would file his statement by Wednesday, although he was struggling with how to respond in just 200 words.

“The recall petition is full of inaccuracies,” he said, describing it as “bogus.”

He said people have called the Courthouse, confused about some of the claims after being approached to sign the petition.

“One person in the north end (of the county) said she was told we would no longer plow their roads,” Webb said. “She signed the petition.”

The recall petitions cited a list of reasons for seeking Webb’s removal, blamed his actions and policies for unemployment, uncollected property taxes, forest fires and more, but some recall advocates have said that the ongoing labor-management disputes in the Grant County Road Department were the last straw for them.

The petition blames Webb for laying off road workers and letting the county’s roads deteriorate.

Webb’s supporters say he is being blamed for actions taken by the entire County Court or by the policies and procedures of other elected county officials.

Recall advocates aren’t deterred. They contend that as the top elected administrative officials, he is responsible.