Bastrop mayor recall petition faces setback over signatures

BASTROP, Texas - A petition to recall Bastrop Mayor Lyle Nelson is facing a setback after the legitimacy of some of its signatures was called into question.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Bastrop residents sign petition calling to remove mayor

Bastrop City Council member Kevin Plunkett spoke with FOX 7 Austin's Dave Froehlich about what led up to this petition and what could happen next.

DAVE FROEHLICH: Starting off, could you explain the allegations and what started the recall process against Mayor Lyle Nelson? 

KEVIN PLUNKETT: Sure. What happened was soon after he got into office, a complaint was received by the city manager from all the employees at Visit Bastrop, which is one of our city's largest contractors. And it's their job to bring visitors to the city. So they do marketing. And allegations came in from all the employees that their CEO was mis-allocating funds, misappropriating funds. There's a lot of bad boss kind of stuff. And also that she had an inappropriate relationship with the mayor. And that was causing problems as well. You know, when that was brought to City Council, we realized there wasn't much we could do about the bad boss stuff or the affair. But we could do something about the financial side of it. And so we started an investigation.

DAVE FROEHLICH: The city staff certified enough signatures for a recall. There was an issue, though, with the initial petition. So what happened with that?

KEVIN PLUNKETT: We're not sure exactly yet. There's our count, our charter in the city of Bastrop has a…it's not a clear wording as far as what is required from the signatures. From each individual signature, it's pretty simple; name, address, date of birth and the Voter I.D. But there are requirements for the petition itself that each page be signed by one of the signers. That attests to the fact that all the statements on the document are true. And depending on how you classify a signer, one of the 20 regular citizens who signed it, or at the bottom, there's also a signer that attests all the statements that all the signers are the people who that they say that they are and they all signed it in my presence. We interpreted that to mean that the person who saw all the signatures being made, the only person who could truly attest to the fact that all the statements on the document are true. Each one of the signers is signing, as you know, by signing on to the petition. They are saying that yes, we believe the mayor should be recalled.

DAVE FROEHLICH: So so what do you think the next steps will be? And the big question is, do you think there will be a recall vote for the mayor? 

KEVIN PLUNKETT: I'd say it's a toss up at this point. The, you know, the right thing to do, obviously I believe, is for the recall to happen. We have over 1600 citizens who have signed a petition saying that there should be a recall vote. If it gets thrown out on technical grounds, I don't know how that works. It doesn't seem right, that's for sure. We've never had 1600 people vote in a city election in the entire history of Bastrop to my knowledge.

DAVE FROEHLICH: Right. Bastrop City Council Member Kevin Plunkett, we appreciate your time. Thank you so much for talking with us. 

KEVIN PLUNKETT: Thank you.