The Urban Phoenix Project Political Action Committee submitted 2,361 signatures to City Hall on Wednesday for a recall of District 7 Councilman Michael Nowakowski to be added to the ballot next year.
The PAC needed a little over 1,300 for the recall to appear on the ballot, but working with 50 volunteers brought the number up well above 2,000.
According to Sean Sweat, the chair of the PAC, once the recall election signatures are approved, the measure will appear on the ballot in May or August.
“The timing of the recall election really depends on how quickly or slowly city hall processes the petition,” Sweat said. “So it’s kind of out of my hands at this point.”
Nowakowski did not respond to requests for comment over phone and email.
But the councilman told The Arizona Republic late Thursday that Sweat and the PAC are not taking into account the different needs of the district’s neighborhoods, and that not all areas are ideal for “urbanization.”
He continued in his statement to The Republic:
“I will be challenging the campaign and the legality of the urban-focused PAC supporting it while I continue to serve District 7… I am confident that with an investigation into the legitimacy of this effort, we will find that untruths and mis-characterizations were employed to sway the public.”
The PAC cited Nowakowski’s past transgressions, including the appointment of the councilman’s former chief of staff as an interim city council member for District 8, controversial anti-LGBT comments Nowakowski made in a 2016, and accusations that he failed to disclose conflicts of interest in a land sale in 2015, as the reason for the recall attempt.
If the petition is successful, Sweat said he does not know who would run to replace the councilman in the District 7 seat.
“I have heard a lot of names, but I don’t actually know what’s going to materialize,” he said.
Contact the reporter at Rebecca.Spiess@asu.edu.
