JOHN DAY — Lisa Weigum will keep her seat on the John Day/Canyon City Parks and Recreation District board.

The vote in the Tuesday, Dec. 13, special election was 447 in favor of recalling Weigum to 715 against in early unofficial returns.

Registered voters who live within the district’s boundaries were eligible to cast ballots in the election.

Charlene Morris filed a petition to recall Weigum in early August, and on Nov. 1 organizers handed in enough valid signatures to force an election.

Morris’ petition claimed that Weigum, in her role as a member of the parks and rec district board, had violated multiple state laws governing public meetings, election publications and budgeting.

No recall petitions were filed against any other board members.

Weigum’s supporters pointed out that she was not the chair of the parks and rec board and that no single individual has the authority to make decisions for the board. In a “statement of justification” filed in response to the recall petition, Weigum called the allegations against her “unfounded” and “deceptive.”

Weigum had emerged as a leading figure in the contentious bond initiative that aimed to raise $4 million toward the construction of a community swimming pool at the Seventh Street Complex in John Day to replace the 64-year-old Gleason Pool, which was torn down this spring to make way for an expansion of the Kam Wah Chung State Heritage Site.

The bond measure failed in the May election after ending in an 802-802 tie. Back on the ballot in November, the measure failed again, 1,108 to 1,030.

Morris had taken a position against the bond measure. In March, she and Shaun Robertson filed a legal action objecting to the measure’s ballot title, and late last year Morris’ husband, John, appealed a conditional use permit granted for the pool’s construction.

Weigum said she was upset when she learned the recall push had received enough signatures to appear on the ballot and that the entire process was difficult and draining.

“When you’re in a constant state of attack, you just have to take whatever comes your way,” she said.

“The recall ended in month 17 of this constant pressure we’d been feeling and seeing at parks and recreation, so it felt like one more thing that we just needed to get through.”

Weigum said she was relieved that people voted against the recall and that they still value her.

“The community spoke, right? I’m appreciative that the community kind of set the tone with that because at this point, they’re community bullies,” she said of her detractors. “I’m not going to be bullied by Charlene Morris or any of her friends, and the district and the rest of the board is also not going to be bullied by Charlene Morris and the rest of her friends.”

For her part, Morris said the recall effort was the right thing to do, even if it failed at the polls.

“I can’t control the voters, and I knew that,” Morris said. “I did what I needed to do.”

Morris brushed off accusations that she and her supporters are “bullies,” adding that Weigum is an elected official and that parks and recreation has corrected many of the issues she’d criticized it for.

“I can tell you the parks and rec district has their agenda out already for their meeting on the 22nd, in the form of an agenda as the statutes say,” Morris said.

“I don’t like the fact that people don’t read, they don’t try to do any due diligence, they don’t try to do their own investigations. They just kept saying she’s a good person and Charlene should have to pay for the recall, and that’s not what the recall was about,” Morris added.

“She is an elected official that had a duty to abide by the public meetings laws.”

In the end, Weigum was thankful for people showing support for her and voting down the recall effort.

”If I could shake every person’s hand who voted for me or who believed in me and didn’t believe the things said about me, I would,” she added.