County denies draft petition to recall Roll

The Lincoln County Attorney on Wednesday denied the draft petition filed to recall Libby Mayor Doug Roll, finding too many generalities in the complaint.

Libby resident Tammy Brown filed a draft petition one week earlier, claiming Roll violated his oath of office and failed to competently discharge the duties as mayor.

Lincoln County Attorney Bernard Cassidy said that the petition lacked specifics and needed to be more clear on occasions underlined by Brown’s complaint.

“There were two or three allegations that he violated, but they didn’t put down the specific facts as to how he had violated the oath of office,” Cassidy said. “It’s got to be so that Roll can say ‘Yes I did that’ or ‘No, I didn’t do that.’”

Cassidy said in order to be validated, the petition needed specific dates and times of Roll’s alleged oath violations in his time as Mayor. If validated, Roll would be limited to a 200 word response to the petition.

“It would be like saying Joe Blow committed theft,” Cassidy said. “There has to be specifics, like on such a day at such time in Lincoln County.”

“Doug Roll has violated his oath of office by refusing to follow the direction of the lawfully-elected City Council by refusing to schedule meetings requested by legal votes of council, refusing to list items requested by members of council on the official meeting agendas, and by executing a contract for a city attorney without approval or authority of the council,” Brown’s initial petition read.

Brown said on Thursday she was not discouraged by the Cassidy’s denial and began working on a more pointed petition the same day.

“It’s not a problem,” she said. “I’ve already started reworking it with the specifics they want. I’m going to have that in as soon as I’m done.”

Since submitting the initial draft on April 13, Brown said her phone has been ringing non-stop with Libby residents expressing support and asking how to get on the petition. Brown is able to submit an unlimited number of draft petitions, according to County Election Administrator Leigh Riggleman. Each draft will follow the same process as the initial submission. If validated by Bernard, Brown’s petition would need 329 signatures to put the recall measure to a ballot vote.

“I have a huge support system in this town,” said Brown, a Libby resident of seven years. “I’m not going to give up until the petition is put through.”

Brown said she’ll likely have the new draft petition submitted by the end of the week.

Reporter Seaborn Larson may be reached at 758-4441 or by email at slarson@dailyinterlake.com.