Jane Murray: Still the Queen of Denial

Madam Mayor Jane Murray survives by the skin of her teeth...based on a technicality.

On Tuesday, the Mayor's lawyers managed to convince the Scioto County Board of Elections to circumvent the legitimate expressed will of the people and to deny the citizens of Portsmouth an opportunity to vote for or against a recall of Jane Murray.

On two seperate petition sheets, Murray's lawyers identified four signatures with improper dates. (In one case, a person inadvertantly wrote his or her birth date instead of the date of signing.) Instead of throwing out the four signatures, the Board threw out both sheets that the signatures were on. By contesting  four signatures out of almost 1200, Murray's attorneys were able to convince the Elections Board to throw out 38 legitimate signatures (2 full sheets)! This was just enough to postpone Murray's Judgment Day at the ballot box.

If such a decision had been made if JIM KALB or GREG BAUER or HOWARD BAUGHMAN, or even NICK BASHAM or JOHN HAAS were the subject of a recall, can you imagine the screams and howls of protest from the CAVE People???

A Citizen would be screeching about the "good ol buoys"! Jane's pack of fossilized supporters would be calling for the boycott of the Portsmouth Times, the lynching of Clay Johnson, the defenestration of the City Clerk, and the burning of the SOGP!!!!

Harald Daub would probably have a heart attack. Jim Wilson would need an extra oxygen tank. Austin Leedom would arise from his crypt before sundown. Bob and Teresa might even leave their Wheelersburg love shack and move back to Portsmouth!

According to the Portsmouth Times (click here to read) , these were the kinds of errors Murray's lawyers were looking for:

-names that were printed
-names with the first or last name printed with the other name in cursive
-names in which initials were used instead of the first name
-petitions in which signatures were dated after the petitions had been notarized

Notice that they weren't looking for!  Were they looking for forged signatures or fraudulant signatures. Were they looking for people who were tricked into signing? WERE THEY LOOKING FOR SIGNS OF CORRUPTION?

Of course not. Murray and the CAVE People knew all along that the recall committee did not do anything improper.As we have said before...they just finally have a recall they don't like.

MERRY CHRISTMAS, CITY OF PORTSMOUTH!

The mayor told the Portsmouth Times and WSAZ, she is confident that the people of Portsmouth support her and that she will not be recalled. If that is true, then why did she fight so hard against allowing the people to vote on the issue?

By challenging these few signatures, based on a minor technicality, Murray has only postponed her recall. The recall committee is said to be re-forming. Any minor errors that occured because the group was up against a deadline (they were trying to get the measure on the November ballot to avoid the expense of special election) will not be repeated! Now because of the Mayor's obstruction, the committee will have plenty of time to make sure they don't make ANY mistakes and to get many more signatures than are needed to ENSURE the measure is on the ballot.

Thanks to the mayor's efforts, the City will have to pay out $20,000 to $30,000 for a "special election" probably in December, which could have been avoided by allowing the people to vote in November. (Of course, the Mayor has already cost the City many times that amount, and she must be removed before she can do even more damage, so it will be worth it.)

Jane Murray is still the Queen of Denial.

As we said before, Mayor. Live by the recall. Die by recall.

PETITIONS FILED TODAY (Mon. Aug. 16)

Recall Effort Against JANE MURRAY Goes Forward!
(Finally. A recall that the CAVE People do not like!)

Over 1400 petitions were filed this morning to have the "recall of Mayor Jane Murray" placed on the ballot, at least 250 more than the required number. The recall committee, headed by former Police Chief Tom Bihl, which was formed just over three weeks ago, needed to at least 1148 valid signatures of registered voters for the recall to go forward.

Tom Bihl and his committee should be commended for this outstanding effort. Following the recall of former-mayor, Greg Bauer, and several city council members over the years, the citizens of Portsmouth changed the City Charter to make it more difficult to get a recall issue on the ballot. In the past it was only necessary to obtain a number of signatures equal to 10% of the number of voters in the previous general election.

Some felt that this threshold was too low, and the citizens voted to change the charter to require 25% instead of 10%. Of course, this is a much higher standard to meet, but it ensures that a city official be an obvious screw-up in order to get recalled. In Jane Murray's case, her crazy, arrogant, and destructive behavior made it relatively easy for the committee to get the increased number of needed signatures--in just three weeks!

NEXT STEPS

Bihl submitted the signatures to the City Clerk, who is required by the City Charter to check each name on the petitions to make sure that they are registered voters and that the signature matches the signatures on file at the County Board of Elections. Invalid signatures are not counted. If the number of valid signature exceeds 1148, the City Clerk will notify City Council which is required to pass an ordinance to request the Board of Elections put the recall of Mayor Jane Murray on the ballot. The timing of Council's request will determine if the issue is on the November ballot or if a special election will have to be held, probably after the first of the year.

If the City Clerk determines that number of valid signatures is insufficient (less than 1148), which seems unlikely at this point, the committee is allowed additional time (up to ten days) to get additional signatures.

If the signatures can be verified fairly soon, if there is a sufficient number, AND if council acts in a timely manner, the citizens of Portsmouth will be able to vote to end the reign of Queen Jane and return are City to normalcy and, hopefully, to progress.

THANKS TO ALL WHO CIRCULATED AND SIGNED PETITIONS AND, ESPECIALLY, TO TOM BIHL AND HIS COMMITTEE. YOUR WORK IS APPRECIATED MORE THAN WE CAN EXPRESS.

NEW: Another Chance to Sign Petition

PLACE: Tracy Park (Across from Kroger Parking Lot)
DATE: Thursday, August 5, 2010
TIME: 5:00 to 7:00 PM.

The recall committee will be at Tracy Park again  tomorrow. The petition drive is going well, but they still need all of the signatures they can get. Please plan to attend and bring a friend who is a registered voter in Portsmouth. The committee is hoping to get sufficient signatures before August 16 in order to avoid the possibility of having to go to a special election.

PROGRESS REPORT

The recall committee currently has about 500 signatures toward the minimum number needed (1148). Since some of the signatures received on any petition may be invalid (not being a registered voter, etc.), the committee has a goal of 1300 just to make sure they have enough valid names.

In previous recalls, the City Charter only required that 10% of the voters in the previous elections needed to sign recall petitions. However, shortly after Mayor Greg Bauer's recall, the charter was changed to require the signatures of 25% of the voters. Under the rule, the committee would now have sufficient signatures but the new rule makes it harder to recall someone, so much more work is needed.

IF YOU WANT TO HELP

If you are concerned about the City and would like to circulate a petition, please contact Tom Bihl or email us P-Town Underground at ptownu@yahoo.com and we will pass along the contact information.

NEWS FROM THE TRACY PARK SIGNING

We received the following report from someone who attended the Tracy Park signing last night. The report is very encouraging, however there is still much to do in the next two weeks.

"It went very well, considering that the plans were kinda last minute. The weather was heavenly...just cool enough for all to be very comfortable. We had a steady flow of citizens who were sooo eager to sign the petitions. There were doctors and nurses and local businessmen and several city workers. There were people in suits and ties and coveralls and some came on motorized chairs. It was very heart-warming to hear how fed up folks are with the so-called "CAVE" People.

About 75 people signed up so about three petition sheets were filled up. This is not a whole lot when over 1100 are needed. But several volunteers eagerly took blank petitions with them, including a lady who has already got 50 signatures on her own. Also many people left phone numbers of relatives and friends who want to sign, and someone will follow up with them. (Also some creepy guy was driving around the Park taking pictures, trying to be smeaky about it. A "CAVE" Person. We just waved at him. He almost caused a wreck.)

There will be probably be at least two more public signings, which will be much more publicized. Since the Tracy Park signing was just spread by word of mouth, everyone was very pleased. They want to get done by the middle of August but they can take more time if they have to."

We will let our readers know about future progress. If you want to sign up or pass petitions, please email us at ptownu@yahoo.com and we will provide you with contact information. Thanks to all who came out yesterday and God bless you.

Tracy Park Petition Signing (CONFIRMED)

Petition Signing:
Tracy Park, 5-7 PM,
Thurs. Jul. 28.

UPDATE: Petition Signing Event is confirmed.

Since former Police Chief Tom Bihl took out recall petitions last Friday, the effort to recall Jane Murray has been making good progress.

(Click here to watch a news story by WSAZ Channel 3 News, or click here to read the Portsmouth Daily Times article.)

Hundreds of signatures have been gathered towards the 1100-plus that will be needed to get the recall issue on the ballot in November. Finally the citizens of Portsmouth will have their chance to get rid of Jane Murray.

However, more signatures and more petition circulators are needed.

We have learned that plans are being made to set up a petition signing at Tracy Park across from the Kroger parking lot, tomorrow (Thursday) from 5:00-7:00 PM.

Here is a chance for our readers to sign a petition or even take blank petition with you if you are a registered voter who would like to collect signatures from your friends and neighbors.

Please plan on going to help save our City and get rid of Calamity Jane.

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P-TOWN EXTRA

About this time last year, Portsmouth the CAVE People (including Robert Forrey, Harold Daub, and Teressa Mollette) were trying to sabotage  a project sponsored by a local community group. Many of them lined up at the microphone at City Council meetings to get their face time on camera to criticize the Portsmouth Kiwanis Tracy Park playground project and condemn Portsmouth City Council and the previous mayor for allowing it.

Teresa Mollette  (whose husband has since been kicked out of office, thank you God) called city officials "tools, fools and lapdogs." She went on the internet to say the Kiwanians were "uncaring and self-absorbed" and call Al Oliver "a political pawn of the Kiwanians."

Robert Forrey called the playground project "skullduggery" and, among many other accusations, said that the Kiwanians"concern for children" is just a marketing ploy.

"Kiwanis Playground: The Hole Truth. [Kiwanis has] rebranded itself as the fraternal order that cares, and cares above all about children. With caring for kids as their new mantra, Kiwanis struck marketing gold, and ever since, in a kind of endless summer, has been surfing on that marketing wave."

The picture below is how they portrayed the Kiwanians and their Tracy Park project on River Vices, one of their vile websites: A skunk on a bulldozer giving the "finger" to the City of Portsmouth.

So if you go to Tracy Park for the petition singing take a moment to enjoy the children playing on the beautiful Kiwanis playground and if you know a Kiwanian, shake his or her hand and thank them for making Portsmouth a better place to live.

And take a moment to watch and listen to this beautiful video of the project the CAVE People tried to stop. If Mayor Murray's idiot supporters had their way it would not exist.