Pueblo mayor reacts to “Recall Mayor Heather Graham” certified petition

PUEBLO, Colo. (KRDO) - A petition calling for a recall election on Mayor Heather Graham is now making rounds in the Steel City.

The petition language has been approved by the City Clerk and Law Office.

The electors behind the effort say they're dissatisfied with Mayor Graham’s performance and want to put it to a vote of the people. 

Mayor Graham telling KRDO13 on Monday night, she's not surprised a petition is circulating to get her out of office.

However, she stands behind all of the decisions she has made while in office.

"The ten accusations against me? Yeah, they're totally not credible," Graham said.

The now certified petition, "Recall Mayor Heather Graham" includes alleged failures and omissions by the mayor; such as stripping funding from nonprofits, retaliating against opponents through the use of police and fire personnel, and entertaining illegal ordinances that eventually lead to the city paying unnecessary legal and attorney's fees.

"It came to a head with the grocery tax or the proposed grocery tax, because people are upset that it was even being entertained, especially in the socioeconomic climate that we have right now," Jason Ford said.

Ford along with Renee Zink are students at CSU Pueblo and they are spearheading the recall.

"We're spending tens of millions of dollars on city buildings and other projects that we, you know, don't need," Ford said.

Mayor Graham says, "Unfortunately, we have several aging facilities within the city of pueblo, several of our employees we have like three people working into one office space. This has been an ongoing exploration I would say."

In the mayor's podcast from last week, she breaks down how and where some funds are coming from so that the city is able to afford certain projects.

Right now, the city of Pueblo is facing a more than $8 million deficit.

"The city has had shortfalls for the last five years where we have transferred out of our fund balance pretty much every single year to balance the budget. So, I would say that this is nothing new to the city of Pueblo," Graham said.

The mayor also addressing why a grocery tax is being considered, "People want projects done, they want roads paved and they want the infrastructure to be up to date and unfortunately we can't do that on three pennies for every dollar spent in the city...Keeping up with inflation, pay wages, living costs to not raise your tax in 50 years. It's surprising that the city has been able to do as good as it is."

Those behind the recall believe otherwise.

"She's gas lighting people into thinking this is all fine when we can see the situations going on right before our very eyes on the streets," Ford said.

In conclusion, Mayor Graham said, "I was elected overwhelmingly to serve this role, and I believe that over the last year and a half I've done and met all my campaign promises that I promised the voters. And so if cleaning up the city, providing accountability, transparency and strengthening our public safety in the community, if people aren't satisfied with that, then sure they can recall me."

According to the city charter, the petition signatures must equal at least 25% of the total number of votes cast in the previous election held for all candidates for the position. Those signatures must be verified City Clerk's office. In this case, a representative with the City of Pueblo says petitioners must get at least 6,287 verified signatures. With the correct number of verified signatures on the petition, an item would be placed on a ballot for voters to decide if they want to recall the Mayor.

Due to the timelines set forth in the city charter, a city spokesperson said (assuming this petition is verified by the City Clerk's office with enough signatures) the question over a recall would appear on the ballot in November.

Editor's note: A previous version of this story said that if the recall committee got just over 6,000 signatures, the mayor would resign or an election would be held to replace her. That is incorrect. If the recall committee obtains 6,287 signatures, an election will be held in November for voters to decide if they want to recall the mayor. We apologize for our error.