Recall flunks school rules

COEUR d'ALENE - Coeur d'Alene School District 271 said RecallCdA did not have permission to solicit signatures on school property over the weekend.

RecallCdA gathered signatures from the parking lot at Lake City High School Saturday through Monday without the district's permission, counter to policy dictating how non-school related events can use the district's property.

Laura Rumpler, school district spokeswoman, said administrators received several complaints over the holiday weekend after the group seeking the ouster of four Coeur d'Alene incumbents set up a table and signs at the high school parking lot near Hanley Avenue.

On Sunday, Rumpler showed up at the school and told petitioners they couldn't use the property. On Monday afternoon, however, different RecallCdA supporters set up a booth on the school's parking lot again.

"RecallCdA did not reach out to us and did not request to use our facility and so we wanted to handle this in a friendly, amicable way," Rumpler said Tuesday. "We have to follow board policy and cannot get involved in political or controversial issues."

Policy 910 states the school board has the authority to decide who can use school property, while the superintendent can also reject any application.

After Rumpler contacted the group Sunday afternoon, petitioners took down some signs and moved from the parking lot closer to the public sidewalk. Around an hour later, RecallCdA volunteer Scott Mote said, the signature collectors left for the day.

But on Monday, other RecallCdA supporters returned in the afternoon, and school officials received more complaints.

"The Coeur d'Alene School District must remain neutral in any community-wide initiative like this, and we have," Rumpler said.

Mote, who manned the booth Saturday and Sunday from midmorning to around 4 p.m., said he understood from the RecallCdA office that they had received permission from somewhere "high up" in the school administration to be there.

He told City Councilman Mike Kennedy that on Sunday, after Kennedy stopped by the parking lot to see if the group had the district's permission.

Mote reiterated that stance on Tuesday, but said he didn't know exactly where he had heard it, other than it was from another RecallCdA volunteer. He wasn't sure, either, to which administrative official it referred.

"I was told by the office we had permission to be there," he said, describing the councilman's conversation with him on Sunday as "confrontational." "I was telling (Kennedy) exactly what I knew."

Later, he added: "I wouldn't be dishonest."

Kennedy is one of the City Council members targeted by the recall effort.

He said his conversation with Mote wasn't confrontational. Kennedy said Mote originally told him he wasn't going say who granted permission.

On Tuesday, Kennedy said the fact that the school district never granted petitioners permission is a dent in the recall effort's credibility. Recordings of petitioners that have been posted online using misleading information soliciting signatures also hamper it, he said.

Council members Woody McEvers and Deanna Goodlander and Mayor Sandi Bloem are the other members targeted by the recall effort. Petitioners have around two more weeks to collect 4,311 signatures from valid registered Coeur d'Alene voters to put a recall election on the ballot. RecallCdA's last estimate to The Press last week was that it had around 4,000 signatures.

Frank Orzell, RecallCdA organizer, declined to comment for this story. He hung up on the Press reporter seeking an interview Tuesday.

Sharon Culbreth, one of the petition gatherers at the high school parking lot Monday, told The Press they were unaware that they needed permission to be there, believing it was public property, and she hadn't heard complaints about it.

Rumpler said the school district will call RecallCdA today to explain its position, and that the school board would likely discuss the issue this week.

"We wanted to handle this in a very respectful, non-confrontational way," she said.