By Nancy Gutierrez
On Monday, June 21 the Tulare County Elections Department reported that the recall attempt on Farmersville Unified School District board member John Vasquez failed due to invalid signatures.
In order for a recall election to occur proponents of the recall must turn in at least 596 valid signatures. Six hundred and sixty one signatures were submitted for Vasquez' recall petition, however after reviewing 300 signatures county officials found 71 to be invalid. That left just 590 valid signatures, if all of the remaining names were found to be valid. FUSD board president Martin Macareno participated in the effort to recall Vasquez.
"I have concern with a board member who goes on the radio and talks about closed session items on his own," Macareno said. "He voted, without evaluations or a budget to extend the contracts of over a dozen administrators when they didn't expire until a year later. It's irresponsible. After 17 years in office he needs to move on to something else."
Vasquez will be staying since the recall was deemed invalid. He said he hopes the recall efforts will end.
"I feel good about [the recall failure]," he said. "I know that the other two recalls have been turned in. As far as the outcomes go if they're a success they're a success. If not then lets move on. We need to work together. We're in a situation that is critical to the district. Its unfortunate that we are at the place we're at now."
The recall election of two other board members Antonio Ramos and Conrado Gonzalez will be held Aug 3. Macareno said he has been campaigning and will continue to campaign for Gonzalez and Ramos.
"They've done an excellent job and I intend to help keep them in office."
The deadline to submit the petition for the recall of Macareno and board member Blanca Sandoval was June 22. Macareno said he believes there will be a sufficient amount of signatures to qualify for a recall election.
"It's one thing to sign a paper," he said. " It's a whole other thing to be informed and vote."
June 23 board meeting:
