A new group has joined the opposition to former Planning and Zoning Commissioner Annie Corrock's petition to recall Ketchum Mayor Randy Hall. In an ad in the Mountain Express, Citizens for Successful Government calls the effort to recall Randy Hall "divisive, spiteful and based on false/misleading information."
Miles Stanislaw, chairman of Citizens for Successful Government, explained in a letter to the editor of the Idaho Mountain Express that his primary reason for getting involved in this issue is simple: "I love Ketchum," he stated. "I firmly believe that he (Randy Hall) is doing everything in his power to get Ketchum past this time of crisis so Ketchum can prosper and succeed in the future."
Citizens for Successful Government joins other residents and organizations, including the Wood River Economic Partnership, the Sawtooth Board of Realtors and 48 Straight in opposing the effort to recall Ketchum's Mayor. Stanislaw said his week-old group, a "grass-roots effort that I started," has ten financial donors. It has purchased several ads in the Mountain Express.
Stanislaw, an attorney who does most of his work outside the Wood River Valley, describes himself as neither a politician nor an activist. He said he was motivated to become involved by the many vacant storefronts in Ketchum and the town's struggling economic vitality.
"This recall effort couldn't occur at a worse time," he said in an interview. "A recall is analogous to overthrowing the government of a Third World country. It is a non-violent overthrow, a coup, and it sends a negative vibe and message. That is not going to help the business, the atmosphere or politics of Ketchum or any other city. Just because you don't agree with a public official, you don't recall him. That's why we have elections and a democracy."
Corrock is a 37-year resident of Ketchum who served on the P&Z from 2004 to 2008 and ran unsuccessfully for city council in 2001 and 2005. In the mid-1990s, the City Council began the process that resulted in The Fields, Blaine County's first community housing development. To permit construction of deed-restricted, affordable housing units, the city needed to allow higher-density building in the low-density neighborhood in which Corrock lives. In 1998, Corrock's father, Jack Corrock, a long-time member of the Ketchum City council, headed a failed recall effort of Hall and other council members who voted in favor of The Fields.
However, Annie Corrock has said the current recall drive is not connected to her father's.
"You know what my goal is?" she stated in an article published in the July 2 issue of the Mountain Express. "To get our government back to a place where it has reliable zoning."
She also said she is more concerned than anything else about the welfare of Ketchum.
Those are the same sentiments Stanislaw expresses to explain his opposition to Corrock's recall effort, which he describes as, "the worst possible political maneuver someone who loves Ketchum could take."
Stanislaw said Citizens for Successful Government will hold a "town hall meeting" on Wednesday, September 17, at 6 p.m. at a location to be announced, at which Hall will talk about promises he made when running for mayor, promises he kept as mayor and his vision for the future of Ketchum. Stanislaw said Hall will answer questions from the audience.
Stanislaw said his hope for the meeting is that people who have signed the recall petition will realize that it is not in the best interests of Ketchum and will withdraw their signatures.
