Open Letter From Recall Chairman Hall

Congratulations to the voters of Marco Island and thanks to all of you who have helped in the process.

Yesterday, the City Clerk of Marco Island Laura Litzan, acknowledged receipt of petitions for the recall of three councilmen: E. Glenn Tucker 1,606, William D. Trotter 1,597 and Michael F. Minozzi Jr. 1,572. All of these were well above the minimum of 1,342. This represents a major milestone in our quest to End Arrogant Rule Now on Marco Island.

The next step is for Ms. Litzan to turn the petitions over to the Supervisor of Elections for Collier County to determine whether the petitions contain the required number of valid signatures. We have vetted the signatures with the voter rolls and don’t expect that the final numbers will be significantly different than the count listed above. Once the signatures are certified they will be returned to the City Clerk and she will notify the affected councilors and they will have five days to file a 200 word defense. The Clerk will then provide us with enough copies of the petitions and the defense for 30% of the voters. We then have 60 days to obtain approximately 2,100 signatures per councilman. If we are successful in getting those signatures and the process is allowed to function as designed by the legislature, the Superior Court Judge would call for a special election not less than 30 days nor more than 60 days from the date the second round of petitions are certified.

I would hope that we can keep the recall on our island and solve our own problems. The primary supporters of these councilmen, the business community, object to this process on the basis that it is putting the island in a bad light. Unfortunately, the councilmen have indicated that they are going to use our tax dollars in an attempt to hide behind the legal system in Naples rather than face the voters on Marco. I point out that if they do that they will be shinning a far bigger negative spot light on Marco Island. Mr. Tucker says they need to go to the courts to protect their reputations. Regardless of what happens in the future, today’s events have placed their names in the history books of Marco Island. The honorable thing for these councilmen to do is to face the voters. I can assure the councilmen that using the City’s treasure in an attempt to use the court system to prevent us from voting will do nothing but insure their reputations will live in infamy.

I have spoken with dozens of our residents in the past month. Most of them are disgusted with the direction our island has taken and most would leave if they could. This is a turning point for our island. We need to take control, manage the growth, clean up the mess that has been made and restore the peace and tranquility that we all came here for. Now that the names of our petitioners are in the public record, we can expect an attack on our petitioners from Celebrate Marco, the Chamber of Commerce and other business interests. I ask that you stand firm in your convictions because the Marco Island they envision isn’t any place we want to live.

Thank you for your continued support.Roger Hall, Chairman Recall Committee