There will be plenty of eyeballs on Coeur d’Alene city employees as they handle the recall petitions that will be turned in 9 a.m. Monday.

The process is not open to the public, but recall and anti-recall group leaders and members of the media have been invited to examine the scanner and be present when the petitions are submitted, stamped, scanned and then delivered to the county elections office.

City Clerk Susan Weathers and Recall CdA organizer Frank Orzell, have been working closely, and amicably, as they nail down the details. The following excerpts are from an email exchange between the two about the process.

Orzell sent the following email message to Weathers Wednesday morning:

Susan,

On behalf of Recall CdA and the advice of our legal counsel, I would like to make two requests:

1. We would appreciate seeing the actual process you intend to use as you receive the petition forms containing the signatures we have gathered, prior to turning them over promptly to the County Clerk per IC 34-1706. We would appreciate having the opportunity to see the actual equipment you intend to scan or copy the petitions either today, 6/6 or tomorrow. 6/7. Have you considered using an outside service provider such as FedEx/Kinkos rather than tie up machines normally used by City Hall staff? Also, we will have our own copies of the documents available as a back-up if needed.

2. We would like to have myself and another member of our group present (on site) during the entire period of time beginning with our turning the documents over to you until they are turned over to the County Clerk that same afternoon. We would simply observe and have no contact with the petitions nor interfere with your process.

We are not looking for any special privilege in making these two requests and have no problem with your allowing persons not associated with Recall CdA also to witness the process.

Respectfully,

Frank Orzell for Recall CdA

•••

From Weathers’ response to Orzell Wednesday afternoon:

Frank, from the beginning I think I have told you that I would appreciate it if you would observe the process of my scanning your petitions and then providing you and me with a disc copy of the scanned petitions. You are more than welcome to come check out the printer/scanner that I will use to scan the documents at any time...So you are aware, I will be placing the petitions in the trunk of my car, so I will not have access to the petitions while I drive to the County elections office. Also, I’m cc’ing the Anti-Recall group this email as a means of inviting them to also view the scanning process and they also can accompany my car.

Orzell responded that he and Bill McCrory would like to examine the scanner/copier sometime Friday morning, and Weathers made the appointment for 9 a.m.

Like the scanning and delivery of the petitions on Monday, the examination of the scanner/copier is open to members of the public by invitation only. The reason for limiting attendance is that the scanning and examination will occur during normal business hours at city hall and there is limited room for witnesses near the machine.