Recall Committee wins battle at Board of Elections
by Chuck Hoven

(Plain Press, December 2007)  The Recall Councilman Joe Santiago Committee emerged victorious in its first scrimmage with Councilman Joe Santiago supporters in route to a December 18th recall election in Cleveland City Council Ward 14. After a three hour hearing on Saturday November 10th, the Board of Elections rejected arguments by supporters of Joe Santiago who challenged the legitimacy of the petitions and the circulation process.

In making its decision the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections said, “We are not inclined to disenfranchise voters based on evidence presented today.”

In a battle of affidavits and counter affidavits, Attorney Vincent Gonzalez and the Recall Councilman Joe Santiago Committee had a clear advantage.

Supporters of Santiago and their attorney Murray Bilfield submitted nine affidavits of persons saying they were misled when signing petitions for the recall. The affidavits state that the petitions they signed referenced an affidavit about Councilman Joe Santiago and they were not shown that affidavit when signing the petition.  The Board of Elections ruled that the City Charter does not require the affidavit be shown, and that it was sufficient that each of the petitions circulated had a summary on the top explaining the issue.

One of the nine affidavits was from a person whose signature was not on the petitions submitted to Cleveland City Council. Only one of the nine was present at the hearing to affirm that she had signed the affidavit with a notary present. That person testified that she signed the affidavit in La Copa Sports Bar.

Rosemary Vinci, who served as Santiago’s campaign manager when he ran for City Council and is a former Board President of Tremont West Development Corporation, said she drove around in the car with the notary and witnessed the notary administering the oath on front porches and in homes of signers  to notarize the document. Vinci said because of an injury to her leg, she did not accompany the notary. When asked by Gonzalez if she could provide descriptions of any of those signing the affidavits, she said she could not because she didn’t have her glasses.

One of the two notaries that notarized the affidavits for the Santiago supporters, Lynn Friedel, at the time a staff person at Tremont West Development Corporation, said she accompanied Vinci to the houses of those signing the affidavits and notarized their signatures. Gonzalez asked Friedel to give a description of each of the individuals whose signatures she had witnessed. Friedel could not provide a description of any of the individuals whom she swore she had witnessed sign the affidavits.

Having already raised serious doubts as to the credibility of Vinci and Friedel, Attorney Gonzalez submitted documents to the Board of Elections that included affidavits from four of the nine people who had signed affidavits for Santiago supporters. In a letter to the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections Gonzalez states “I have secured at least four affidavits, properly notarized, attesting to the fact that the signatures were not notarized by the notary who stamped the alleged Affidavit, that the signature on the alleged Affidavit was in fact secured under false premises: that the recall Petitions were aimed at closing Ward businesses, and/or after offering an improper inducement (see the affidavit from Jose Rivera). These alleged Affidavits were submitted by Sandra L. Smith, who is a board member of Tremont West Development Corporation, and Connie Hardy, who works for Councilman Santiago.”

Several of the affidavits secured by Gonzalez indicated that Raed Sadik, the manager of La Copa Sports Bar, secured the signatures and no notary was present. They indicated Sadik secured the signatures under false pretenses. Sadik is a convicted felon who is currently under probation for violation of State Liquor laws at La Copa.

Gonzalez asked that both notaries, Lynn Freidel and Katherine McGuire, appear before the Board of Elections to “verify that the affidavits were sworn before them as subscribed in the verification clause.”

The Santiago supporters then attacked the quality of the signatures on the petitions. Kate Dupuis challenged signatures where she believed one person had signed another person’s name in addition to their own. Of the 25 signatures she pointed out 11 had already been eliminated by the Board of Election review of signatures. The Board of Elections staff looked at the remaining signatures and found four worth review by the Board of Elections. The Board found two of the four signatures to be questionable.

Billings, with advice from Attorney Jose Feliciano and Ward 18 Councilman Jay Westbrook, tried another tactic. He argued that any petition with one bad signature should be thrown out in its entirety as fraudulent.

Representing the Recall Committee, Attorney Vincent Gonzalez successfully argued that state election law did not allow entire petitions to be thrown out because of a bad signature. The Cuyahoga County Board of Elections’ staff confirmed that statement.

Board of Elections staff member Brent Lawler went a step further and said the Recall Councilman Joe Santiago Committee had a remarkably high percentage of registered voters (95%) sign the petitions in Ward 14. He said normally people circulating petitions are told to get two or three times the signatures needed.

Lawler said 769 of the 812 people signing the recall petitions were registered voters in Ward 14. He said the additional requirement that voters must have voted in the last council race in Ward 14 eliminated additional signatures leaving the total number of valid signatures at 693. He said signatures of 20% of those who voted in the last election (598 valid signatures) were needed.

(see related photos here)

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