Residents submit nearly 9,000 signatures seeking Aurora recall referendum

A group of Aurora residents submitted petitions with just under 9,000 signatures Friday to add two recall referendum questions to the city’s November ballot, leaders of the group said.

If placed on the ballot, the questions would ask Aurora voters if the city should adopt mechanisms that would allow a sitting mayor or an alderman at-large to be recalled.

The proposed referendum questions are part of a larger effort to find a way to boot a sitting mayor or alderman at-large from office before their term is up. The group Aurora for Change was formed around this issue.

While those formally leading the push say the initiative is non-partisan and not aimed at any specific elected official, others promoting the effort have specifically called for Aurora Mayor John Laesch to be removed from office.

One of the organizers behind Aurora for Change, Adam Pauley, said previously that the group needed at least 4,000 signatures to get the referendum questions in front of voters in November, but he aimed for 7,000 signatures.

“We blew the requirements out of the water,” said Danny Souri, one of the organizers behind Aurora for Change and the former chair of the Aurora Township Republicans, on Friday.

The thousands of submitted petition signatures need to be verified before the questions can appear on the ballot.

Souri said Friday that all signatures were from Aurora residents, whom he said were diverse in background. He said that even people who might not support actually recalling the current mayor supported the petition because they generally back putting a recall mechanism in place.

“That’s kind of what’s been beautiful about this,” said Souri. “We got together and signed this petition under the premise that we as the people bestow upon the government their ability to govern, not the other way around.”

Under the proposed mechanism, residents looking to recall an elected official would need to circulate petitions and collect at least enough signatures to equal 20% of the total votes cast in the most recent mayoral election, according to the proposed referendum question. If a recall petition got enough signatures, then the recall would go to a general vote in the next election.

The elected official would then be removed from office if the majority of voters cast their ballots in favor of the recall. The Aurora City Council would have 30 days to fill the vacancy, and if there’s more than 13 months remaining in the term, then a special election would be held to fill the seat within nine months.

If the proposed referendum questions get on the ballot in the Nov. 3 general election, and then voters approve the measure, the recall mechanism would go into place immediately, according to petitions. The addition of a recall mechanism would technically be a change to the city’s electoral system.

Recall efforts in other Illinois communities have faced challenges, as the state only provides a recall mechanism for the governor, not for any other elected official.

For example, a push to recall Dolton’s mayor made it on the ballot and was approved by the majority of voters, but it was later struck down by an appellate court.

Despite the challenges recall efforts have faced in Illinois, attorney Burt Odelson told The Beacon-News in May that he believes referendums to create local recall mechanisms are legal as long as the wording is precise enough to withstand legal challenges. He was involved in the recent Dolton mayoral recall effort.

Odelson, along with Aurora’s legal department and former Aurora Corporation Counsel Rick Veenstra previously declined to comment on the legality of the proposed Aurora recall questions. But Pauley told The Beacon-News in May that the questions have gone through legal review.

Souri said in the months leading up to the election he plans to continue encouraging people to vote and get engaged with the recall effort.

· awright@chicagotribune.com