Portland Voters Able to Sign School Committee Recall Petitions
By Mike Hein
Dec 17, 2007 - 3:23:02 PM
Only Two Thursdays Remain to Sign at Portland Library Branches
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| Riverton Recall Petitions |
Signature-gathering is currently taking place to put the Portland School Committee recall on the local 2008 ballot.
Signatures of registered Portland voters are being accepted at the City Clerk's Office at the Portland City Hall during regular business hours from now to January 2.
Signatures are also accepted on Thursday, December 20, and Thursday, December 27, from noon until 8:00 p.m. at four branches of the Portland Public Library system (Monument Square Library, Reiche Library, Burbank Library, and Riverton Library).
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| Reiche Library |
Between now and January 2, three thousand registered Portland voters must go to Portland City Hall or one of the four designated Portland Library locations (Thursdays only, noon to 8:00 p.m.) and sign the recall petitions.
Portland's
Main Library (Monument Square Branch) is located at 5 Monument Square and can be contacted at reference@portland.lib.me.us and (207) 871-1700. Portland's
Reiche Branch Libarary is located at 166 Brackett Street at the upper level of the Howard C. Reiche School. It can be contacted at reiche@portland.lib.me.us and (207) 774-6871.
Portland's
Burbank Branch Library is located at 377 Stevens Avenue, across from Deering High School. It can be reached at burbank@portland.lib.me.us and (207) 774-4229. Portlland's
Riverton Branch Library is located at 1600 Forest Avenue, at the Riverton School and Community Center Building. It can be reached at riverton@portland.lib.me.us and (207) 797-2915.
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| Burbank Library |
On Thursday evening, December 13, City of Portland election officials were available at each of the remote Portland Library branches, despite an ongoing snowstorm.
Denise Shames monitored the Reiche Library branch location signature collection effort, while Larry Perkins and Scott Merrill supervised the Burbank Library and Riverton Library branch locations, respectively. Each official was interviewed briefly at each site between 6:30 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. that evening.
If 3,000 registered Portland voters sign the petition, the petitions will be certified by the Portland City Clerk and sent to the Portland City Council. The City Council will then issue a date for a special recall election, most likely in November, 2008.
If less than 3,000 registered Portland voters sign the petitions, the measure fails, and it cannot be the basis of a recall request for one year.
Nick McGee of the
Maine Coalition of Concerned Families (MECCF) wrote recently in a Portland Press Herald column:
"In October [2007], in an hour's time, the [Portland School] Committee decided that prescription contraceptive drugs may be distributed to King Middle School Health Center patients without express parental notification or consent.
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| Burbank Recall Petitions |
"What was the rush? This policy threatens parental rights, has potentially harmful medical affects to children, and the legality of this policy likely conflicts with state law regarding the age of consent.
"Why did they act so quickly without a ruling from the Attorney General's Office? Why haven't our elected legislators pushed the AG to render an opinion about a process that may put our educators in conflict with state law?
"Regardless of party affiliation, we believe [Portland is] capable of producing three more responsible and judicious people to serve our schools.
"We hope the [Portland's registered voters] will come forward in support of this effort."
McGee and the
MECCF can be contacted at P.O. Box 3694, Portland, ME 04104, info@meccf.org, (207) 797-3960.
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