On Aug. 8, the El Paso County Clerk and Recorderís Office issued its final determination on the petition to recall Jan Pizzi, Woodmen Hills Metropolitan District board director, who filed a protest to the recall. The determination concluded that Pizzi had sufficient reasons for her protest and the recall petition was insufficient.Ryan Parsell, public information officer for the CRO, said Ron Pace had submitted the recall petition on behalf of recall committee members Amy Schmidt, Nicole Dillon and Christine Jenkins. Initially, the CRO issued a notice of insufficiency to the recall committee members, citing a lack of valid signatures. The members resubmitted the petition; and, on June 25, the CRO then issued a ruling of sufficiency.Pizzi submitted a formal protest, and a hearing took place July 17 to allow Wayne Williams, EPC clerk and recorder, to hear the evidence presented by both sides, Parsell said.During that hearing, committee members admitted they had presented some residents with a 14-point ìReasons for Recallî list when asking for signatures, but Pizzi could not address those items because they werenít on the official recall petition, Parsell said. Williams continued the hearing until July 31 to allow Pizzi to submit documentation in opposition of those 14 points, he said.ìAt the hearing, we had to determine whether the points on the ëReason for Recallí list were valid and then determine how many people circulated them,î Parsell said. Of the 14 points, a couple of them were clearly true statements; others were partly true and some had no evidence to validate them, which led to a determination that those points were substantially misleading, he said.Also, of the 404 valid signatures, all but 18 of them were obtained by circulators who testified that they presented the ìReason for Recallî document to those who signed the petition. Schmidt testified that some who signed the petition did not receive the ìReason for Recallî document, and others were presented with only a few of the ìreasons.î According to the determination document, ìThe DEO (Williams) cannot determine which potential recall petition signers received what information, but it is clear that the 14-point circular was at least used as a script when the circulators were meeting with the public.The DEO also finds that considering the totality of the circumstances the recall petition circulators substantially misled potential recall petition signers when gathering recall petition signatures.îParsell said the current recall process has been quashed. Pizzi is pleased with the outcome. ìThere is no need for any recalls. There are five people on the board so thereís a check and balance,î she said. ìWe all live here in the community so what affects you, affects me. If we donít move forward, our houses will be worth nothing. We canít keep going through with these recalls.îEditorís note: Ron Pace refused a phone call from Lindsey Harrison.
