SAN DIEGO (CNS) - The recall effort aimed at embattled San Diego Mayor Bob Filner got a boost Wednesday with the addition of political consultants who overwhelmingly qualified a pension reform initiative for the June 2012 ballot.
Public relations executive John Hoy, fundraiser Jean Freelove and April Boling, a certified public accountant who frequently serves as treasurer for local Republican campaigns, signed on to the recall effort led by land-use consultant Mike Pallamary and homemaker Elisa Brent.
Pallamary and Brent recently united their effort with one started by Stampp Corbin, the publisher of LGBT Weekly. Corbin has repeatedly asked for local politicians to provide them with assistance.
Rachel Laing, who also joined the effort to help with communications, told City News Service that Pallamary authorized them to run the signature-gathering campaign that's set to begin Aug. 18. She called it "a huge logistical undertaking."
Hoy ran the campaign that collected 115,000 valid signatures to qualify Proposition B, which ended up passing with more than two-thirds of the vote, Laing said. The ballot measure closed the city's debt-ridden pension system to most new employees and limits how employees can use their pay over the next five years to calculate future retirement payouts.
It would take nearly 102,000 valid signatures for the Filner recall petition to qualify for the ballot, according to the City Clerk's Office.
Laing said likely donors to the recall effort were sitting on the sidelines to see if the campaign was viable. Now a "professional team" is in place, she said.
The signatures need to be turned into city clerk by Sept. 26.
