Recall effort launched in Boulder City

By Mike Trask

Wednesday, March 5, 2008 | 10:34 a.m.

This morning three Boulder City voters initiated a recall against two City Council members who were elected last year.

Within 90 days, recall backers need to collect the signatures of 1,085 registered voters to trigger a special election to oust Councilwoman Linda Strickland, and the signatures of 1,268 voters to force an election to oust Councilman Travis Chandler.

There's a higher bar to remove Chandler because he won his seat in a general election. Strickland won a seat in the primary election by being chosen by more than half of the voters in crowded primary field.

A nominating petition could allow another candidate to be place on the special election ballot. The Boulder City Clerk has not received notice that such a petition is circulating.

Strickland and Chandler are lawyers who have been intent on changing how the city does business since taking office in July.

Most controversial among their efforts: questioning the city's lease of a two-acre site for the development of a hotel near Boulder Creek Golf Course. Strickland said a lease agreement the city entered before she took office was illegal. The state attorney general ruled the lease was legal.

The town isn't unfamiliar with recalls. In 2004, Mayor Bob Ferraro survived a recall election.

The three Boulder City residents who initiated the recall are Christine Milburn, Robert Draney and Edward Waymire. They will have 90 days to collect signatures.

Milburn ran unsuccessfully for Clark County Public Administrator in 2006.