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ALPENA -- The number of petition signatures does not meet the threshold to trigger a recall election of Alpena Public Schools Board of Education members Eric Lawson, Sarah Costain, and Monica Dziesinski, according to final tallies.
Alpena County Clerk Keri Bertrand said that Lawson had 3,553 valid signatures, Costain had 3,605, and Dziesinski had 3,530. The threshold to meet was 3,771 signatures.
In February, Alpena Township resident Yvonne Johnson submitted recall petitions against Costain, Dziesinski, and Lawson. Signatures were collected on the petitions in May and June and submitted to the County Clerk on June 29.
Dziesinski and Lawson faced recall for voting to hire Kallman Legal Group as a second law firm, voting against implementing a rain garden at Alpena High School, and voting yes to awarding a paving contract to a higher bidder.
Costain faced recall for voting against the rain garden and voting to hire Kallman, as well as for missing 30% of all school board meetings in her first year in office.
Initial counts of signatures before validation by Bertrand indicated that Costain received 4,399 signatures, Lawson received 4,347, and Dziesinski received 4,318.
After Bertrand checked signatures for validation, the numbers were 3,859 for Costain, 3,803 for Lawson and 3,786 for Dziesinski.
The three board members were then given a period of time to file challenges to signatures. After those challenges, the number of signatures did not meet the threshold for a recall election to be triggered for any of the three board members.
Bertrand said that there were hundreds of signatures challenged. Nearly 800 signatures were removed from the original count for each of the three board members.
Bertrand said that the reasons that signatures were invalidated were that someone did not sign their name in the right township or city or they were not registered to vote.
Additionally, she said that if someone put their address and did not indicate a city or township, that signature was not considered valid. In some cases, whole petition sheets could not be counted due to that error.
"First, I'm thankful to the dozens of volunteers who collected more than 4,300 signatures for each board member and all the residents who took time to sign," Johnson said in a statement.
"This was a monumental effort, and we can hold our heads high knowing we put Alpena's kids and their education first as we pursued this vital civic process," she continued. "Of course, I'm beyond disappointed the clerks invalidated about 800 signatures for each board member, effectively disenfranchising hundreds of Alpena residents. We have questions about hundreds of the invalidated signatures. The recall committee is still exploring our legal recourse."
Costain thanked Bertrand for all the work she did to review the recall petitions.
"I appreciate the tremendous amount of work that went into reviewing these petitions," Costain said in a statement. "I especially want to thank County Clerk Keri Bertrand, her staff, and all of the local clerks who handled this process with professionalism, diligence, and care during an already demanding election season."
"This review was about ensuring Michigan election law was applied fairly and consistently," she continued. "Both sides exercised the legal rights available to them throughout the process. In addition to the signatures reviewed by the clerk, we had also submitted challenges to petition pages that we believed did not comply with Michigan recall law. Ultimately, enough signatures had already been determined to be invalid that those additional challenged pages were not even needed to reach the required threshold."
"While this has been a difficult chapter for our community, I respect that people have different opinions and care deeply about our schools," Costain said. "I also recognize the significant amount of taxpayer-funded time and resources required to administer a recall effort. My hope is that we can now move forward together and focus those same resources on supporting our students and strengthening Alpena Public Schools."
"I remain committed to serving every student, every family, and every taxpayer in our district," she said. "Thank you to everyone who has supported me throughout this process. I'm grateful for the opportunity to continue the work our community elected me to do."
Dziesinski also made a statement about the recall petition results.
"I’m happy with how the recall effort turned out," she said. "The challenge process is part of our democratic system, and it showed that many of the signatures and petitions were invalid. I’m also glad the voice of the people from our last election was upheld."
"I hope our community can move past this division and get back to focusing on what matters most, our kids," she added. "Unfortunately, I believe the people leading the recall lost sight of that."
Lawson said that he thinks the outcome of the recall process was appropriate.
"I think the outcome was appropriate," he said. "And I’m sure if one of the people in the recall effort had been in our position, they would have challenged signatures which may have been invalid as well. That’s a normal part of the process."
"However, this recall effort has been plagued by misinformation and misrepresentation from the beginning and my concern is that if elected, that’s how they would govern," Lawson continued. "Our community deserves better. I look forward to continuing to serve the students and families of the APS system."