Maine Townsman - October, 2013

Recall is the process by which an elected public official may be removed from
office before the natural expiration of the officials term of office. Recall ordinarily
requires a petition and a recall election, but the precise requirements vary
depending on the applicable law.

There is no generally applicable recall procedure under Maine law for the removal of
an elected municipal official. Title 30-A M.R.S.A. 2505 was enacted in 2011 to
provide a recall procedure in the absence of a municipal ordinance or charter
provision, but this statutory process is applicable only if the official in question is
convicted of a crime committed while in office, the victim of which is the
municipality itself. This statutory recall process does not apply under any other
circumstances.

Except for 30-A M.R.S.A. 2505, an elected municipal official may be recalled only if
there exists a local recall procedure. (Note that this is optional a municipality is not
required to provide for recall at all.) According to 30-A M.R.S.A. 2602(2), a
municipality may, under its home rule authority, provide for the recall of any elected
official other than a school committee member by either charter or ordinance. A
school committee member, however, may be recalled only under a charter
provision.

The typical recall ordinance or charter provision requires a recall petition naming
the official to be recalled and signed by a certain number or percentage of voters.
Upon submission and verification of signatures, the municipal officers (selectmen or
councilors) are then required to call a recall election within a certain time. If the
election results in removal of the official, the vacancy is filled in accordance with
general law (by either election or appointment, depending on the office).

While recall may be appropriate in some cases, it is not necessarily the right
response to every political dispute. If your community is considering a recall
ordinance or charter provision, we recommend that the number of petition
signatures required be set high enough to prevent a small minority from forcing
frivolous or repetitive recall elections. We also recommend that the petition not be
required to cite a specific reason for the recall, as this could inadvertently convert
what is essentially a political decision into a due process proceeding, complete with
potential for court appeals.

For the record, the recall process is not applicable to the removal of appointed
officials. Appointed officials and employees generally are entitled to due process (a
notice and hearing) and may be removed only for cause (see For Cause

Removal of Municipal Appointees, Maine Townsman. Legal Notes, February 2000).

(By R.P.F.)