RECALL: Offering a different approach

I’m not a Coeur d’Alene resident, but this recall issue is impossible to avoid. Each day brings new issues or tales of wrongdoing on one side or the other.

Both sides appear to have some good arguments, but this observation is about the process. It has become so emotional that the county prosecutor’s office, acting intelligently to establish the court’s position on a point that could well become the basis for a post recall lawsuit, produced the charge that it is “taking sides.” Such drivel in an election year might cause voters to look with disdain on someone whose record, with very little research, shows his return to office to be in the best interests of the electorate.

The entire scenario is regrettable because there must be good and sincere people on both sides of this issue. Obviously a majority of the electorate had confidence in these individuals when elected. This recall process smacks of “throwing the baby out with the bath water.” Those who have organized and are pursuing it feel it is the only way to stop something with which they feel the majority of the electorate is not in agreement, but is there a better way?

Wouldn’t a “vote of confidence” to which the mayor and council would agree to abide be a better solution? It would stop the recall and give voice to those who feel disenfranchised. The project could then proceed or be shelved until the next election.

PAT GUSTAFSON

Hayden Lake