Original recall petitioner still standing firm

“I think we’ve got such a mess at the county level”

In his trademark overalls and cowboy hat, Robert Allen mans his post next to Highway 135 in Gunnison. Stickers in the windshield of his RV dub the aging Ford the “Recall Mobile” and the state colors flap in the wind on the roof next to the Stars and Stripes. A big sign tells the reasons he’s there, sometimes 10 hours a day.

It says: Recall Gunnison County Commissioners
New Jail – No
Jail Improvements – Yes
Stimulus Money – No
New Taxes – No
Right to Vote – Yes
Restore our Constitution – Yes
And, of course, he’s got a petition there that people in agreement can sign and add to the ranks trying to make a recall happen. He’s a man on a mission.
Allen started the campaign to have all three Gunnison County Commissioners recalled early this spring and today he’s the only remaining member from that original three-person
committee.
The two committee members who dropped out, even while maintaining their support for the movement, have been replaced and the petition the group is circulating has seen a series of revisions. But Allen’s belief that the commissioners have trampled on his constitutional rights in ordering the construction of a new 52-bed detention center is as strong as it ever was.
What he hears from people stopping by the Recall Mobile only strengthens his conviction.
“There are a lot of reasons [people are signing the petition]. Some of them don’t want the new jail. Some of them don’t want [the jail] to go there,” Allen says. He personally believes the county plans to use federal stimulus money to build the jail. “That I think will increase federal control in the county and decrease citizen control here.”
And he admits that other people signing the petition “have got other issues with the commissioners that aren’t really related to that.”
But while the Build America Bonds that will probably be a part of the financing package for the jail are a part of the federal stimulus program, county manager Matthew Birnie says there is no stimulus money tied to the construction of the jail.
The fight for Allen is also about what it means for a small mountain community to spend millions of dollars on a jail.
“I think it’s going to be a place to make bad boys and girls into criminals,” Allen says. “I think the jail is being designed to minimize the amount of contact that goes on between jailers and prisoners and I think that decreases the chances of rehabilitation.”
He’s also afraid that the size of the facility will put Gunnison County into the pool of places prisoners are moved to and from, giving “young offenders a chance to be educated by hardened criminals.”
Plainly stated, Allen thinks, “It’s too big for Gunnison County.”
There are also problems with the location and the impacts Allen is sure the jail will have on activities that happen at the county fairgrounds.
So far, the recall committee doesn’t have anyone in mind to face each of the commissioners in a special election, he says. But they are still trying to get more than 2,100 people to sign the recall petitions for both Hap Channell and Paula Swenson and around 1,500 registered voters to sign the petition for Jim Starr before a July 2 deadline.
“I think we’ve got such a mess at the county level that it’s going to be hard getting good people to take it on and fix all of the problems,” Allen says.
Birnie also doubts that any “reasonable person” who steps into the commissioners’ shoes will “look at the facts and pull the plug” on the jail project. And it would be a big plug to pull, with contracts in place with architects and project management, bond money in hand, property and plans to build this fall.
“If that were to happen, that person or those people would have to own what that would mean for the county,” Birnie says. “The commissioners don’t necessarily want to build a jail, but they have to. It’s not a choice anymore and I think anyone sitting where they sit would see that.”
If the committee gets the required number of signatures, a series of procedural steps will start that gives the county a chance to verify the signatures and set up a special election. If there are questions about the validity of any part of the recall, the commissioners will also have a chance to make a challenge.
Once the county clerk checks the signed petitions against voter registration, they will have 45 to 60 days to set up a special election that could cost as much as $25,000.
Already the committee has pushed back the start of their recall campaign twice to change items in the committee or petition that could have made their final set of signatures vulnerable to challenge without the changes.
The delays pushed the committee close to one deadline for the possibility of a recall of Commissioner Jim Starr, who by statute cannot face a special election because of the recall within six months of the end of his current term in January, despite facing reelection in November.
But the changes and delays haven’t dampened Allen’s belief that what he is doing is patriotic and right.
“I’ve been sitting out here since the first of [May],” Allen said, adding that former committee member Alex Laird has also taken a few shifts with him. And he was rarely alone on a recent weekday morning.
In his hours manning the Recall Mobile, Allen has had plenty of people to talk to. Visitors stop by to chat and he’s quick with a smile and a contagious laugh. Despite the deadlines and the doubters, he’s optimistic that the voters will hold the commissioners accountable for their decision to move forward with the jail.
In looking through the books of petitions stacked neatly on the table set up in front of the Recall Mobile, Allen flipped through three books before finding one that had a page without signatures to show a reporter, near the end of the book.
“We’ve got quite a few signatures, but we’re going to need to get a move on if we’re going to make it,” he says.
With that July 2 deadline looming, Allen has less than a month to finish what he started.