The Recall Gondek petition did not reach the more than half million required to successfully recall Calgary’s Mayor Jyoti Gondek. After 45 days allotted to the City Clerk's Office to “determine the sufficiency or insufficiency of the recall petition within 45 days,” a total of 69,344 signatures were collected in Landon Johnson's Recall Gondek campaign.The results of the campaign to recall Gondek were announced Monday morning at Calgary City Hall.For Gondek to be recalled, 514,284 signatures from voting-age Calgarians were needed. That works out to be 40% of the electorate.Elections Calgary went through the process of verifying each signature contains the “legislatively required information,” confirmed each John Hancock was accompanied by a signature of another adult witness, and “that the witness signed the required affidavit.”They ruled all the signatures were invalid because the notice of petition was not put on each pageIn a brief press scrum after the vote was announced, Gondek said the province should help cover the cost of the vote.She called on the “provincial government to understand how to make this process more user friendly for folks." "The provincial government needs to think about what this just cost us.""Cost is always a concern for taxpayers. We have spent $30,000. Provincial government needs to think about what this just cost us to verify that none of those signatures were valid."Johnson, in a telephone interview with the Western Standard, said he only found out about today's 9:30 a.m. meeting at 9:41 a.m.“I’m a little frustrated that they didn’t give me a heads up the official council meeting was called at this time," he said.“On February 6, I sent the city an email with the documents for my petition and the affidavit and they said it was good. But they did say to direct all my questions to municipal affairs. They could not or would not help me with this matter. So all the questions I had I could not get them to him.”
The Recall Gondek petition did not reach the more than half million required to successfully recall Calgary’s Mayor Jyoti Gondek. After 45 days allotted to the City Clerk's Office to “determine the sufficiency or insufficiency of the recall petition within 45 days,” a total of 69,344 signatures were collected in Landon Johnson's Recall Gondek campaign.The results of the campaign to recall Gondek were announced Monday morning at Calgary City Hall.For Gondek to be recalled, 514,284 signatures from voting-age Calgarians were needed. That works out to be 40% of the electorate.Elections Calgary went through the process of verifying each signature contains the “legislatively required information,” confirmed each John Hancock was accompanied by a signature of another adult witness, and “that the witness signed the required affidavit.”They ruled all the signatures were invalid because the notice of petition was not put on each pageIn a brief press scrum after the vote was announced, Gondek said the province should help cover the cost of the vote.She called on the “provincial government to understand how to make this process more user friendly for folks." "The provincial government needs to think about what this just cost us.""Cost is always a concern for taxpayers. We have spent $30,000. Provincial government needs to think about what this just cost us to verify that none of those signatures were valid."Johnson, in a telephone interview with the Western Standard, said he only found out about today's 9:30 a.m. meeting at 9:41 a.m.“I’m a little frustrated that they didn’t give me a heads up the official council meeting was called at this time," he said.“On February 6, I sent the city an email with the documents for my petition and the affidavit and they said it was good. But they did say to direct all my questions to municipal affairs. They could not or would not help me with this matter. So all the questions I had I could not get them to him.”
