Thursday, July 06, 2000
Councilman Saylor's foes fire first official salvo
By Earnest Winston
The Cincinnati Enquirer
FAIRFIELD — Foes of Jon Saylor took the first official step Wednesday to remove the First Ward Councilman from office by filing a letter of intent to circulate a recall petition.
The 27-year-old Mr. Saylor has been indicted on 68 counts, charged with creating sham voters and falsifying absentee ballots. About a dozen questionable ballots were cast in the November election, which he won by more than 100 votes. He is free on bond, awaiting a Sept. 25 trial.
The letter of intent allows Mr. Saylor's critics to begin collecting the 327 signatures from registered First Ward voters needed for a recall petition. They have 30 days from Wednesday to file the recall petition, clerk of coun cil Dena Morsch said.
Also Wednesday, a group calling itself Concerned Citizens of Fairfield hosted an informational meeting at Pusch's Restaurant on Nilles Road. At the evening meeting, instructions were given to the circulators about how and where they can collect signatures for the petition drive, which will end Sunday. The petitions will then be handed over to Ms. Morsch next week, Johnny Mac Brown, trustee of the citizens group, said.
“The attitude of the circulators is very enthusiastic and very positive. They feel they are doing the right thing by re-establishing a sound, solid city council,” Mr. Brown said.
“We have never, to my knowledge, had anyone occu py a position here with any such charges against them as what Mr. Saylor has been indicted for. What the citizens of Fairfield desire is to have a government that is clean, that is fair and does the job for the people.
“With Mr. Saylor's presence, he's handicapping the city council,” Mr. Brown said.
Ms. Morsch has 10 days to verify the signatures from the time she receives the petition. Once they are vali dated, she has to notify Mr. Saylor in writing of the recall petition.
Then Mr. Saylor has five days to resign. If he does not, council has to call a special meeting to set a date for a recall election. Fairfield has never had a recall election, Ms. Morsch said.
The election would cost $650 for each of the First Ward's 11 precincts, bringing the estimated cost of the election to $7,150, Ms. Morsch said.
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