Florida: Appellate Court overturns Crescent City Commissioner recall vote

The Fifth District Court of Appeals has thrown out the recall vote against Crescent City Commissioner Cynthia Burton, more than a month after voters ousted Burton, 180-126. 

The court's decision used both substantive and procedural grounds to toss out the vote. It held that the petitions were not filed with the appropriate official (the clerk), though one of the concurrences disagrees with this position. Substantively, it held that the petitions did not meet the malfeasance standard of the law, claiming that there was no real violation of the Open Meeting Act or Sunshine Law. Generally, the Open Meeting Act violations are a popular charge in malfeasance standard recalls, so this ruling would be a blow to them, but hard to say that it would have too large an impact, as some jurisidictions in Florida have political recall laws.

The complaint over the sunshine law violation was over a vote to abolish the police department (which took place two years ago). A former mayoral candidate, Craig Oates, is leading the effort.

There was previously failed recall against another Commissioner, Judith West, over the same vote.

There is now discussion of whether Burton should be reimbursed for the costs of the recall (and presumably, legal costs as well).