By Marvin G. Cortner

Editor

The process to recall Osceola County Commissioner John Quiñones is quite involved, according to information provided by the Supervisor of Elections office.

A group of about 30 residents in Buenaventura Lakes, which is in Quiñones district 2, has already started collecting signatures for the petition to force an election on whether he should be removed from office, according to Kathy Sperling, spokeswoman for the group. The group's recall effort, though, may be flawed from the start. According to information provided by the Supervisor of Elections office, a recall petition may not be filed until Quiñones has served at least one-fourth of his term, which would be one year.

In general though, a recall effort against Quiñones would begin by the group filing a petition signed by at least 5 percent of the registered 26,462 voters in the district (1,323 signatures required), and the petition must include the grounds for the recall.

Grounds for recall include: incompetence, malfeasance (commission of an act that is unlawful), misfeasance (doing a lawful act in an unlawful or improper manner), neglect of duty, drunkenness, permanent inability to perform official’s duties and conviction of a felony involving moral turpitude.

Once signatures are collected, they must be turned in to the county no later than 30 days after the first signature is obtained to. The signatures would then be verified by the supervisor of elections, at a cost of 10 cents per signature or the actual cost of the work, whichever is less.

If the petition is found to be in order, Quiñones would be served with a copy of the petition and would have five days to file a defensive statement.

Within five days after the supervisor of elections receives the defensive statement, that office would prepare a document called “Recall Petition and Defense,” which would then be provided to the recall committee chairperson. The recall committee then would have 60 days to obtain the signatures of 15 percent of the registered voters in the district (3,969).

The supervisor of elections would then verify the new signatures for the petition, at a cost of 10 cents per signature. If certified, the petition and defense document would then be provided to the county and Quiñones and the County Commission would be notified.

Quiñones at that point would face a recall election unless he resigned. If he did not resign within five days notice of receiving the petition, the chief judge in the Ninth Judicial Circuit would set the date for a recall election not less than 30 days and no more than 60 days after the end of the five-day-notice period.

If the recall election succeeds (a simple majority would be needed), the vacancy would have to be filled by a special election. The date of the election and qualifying criteria would be set by the chief judge and the election would have to be held no less than 30 days and no more than 60 days after the recall election.