Effort to Recall McGoldrick Comes Up Short, Appeal Denied

By Paul Kozakiewicz

The effort to unseat District 1 Supervisor Jake McGoldrick came up short in September when the SF Department of Elections ruled that there were not enough valid signatures to qualify for the Feb. 5 ballot.

The group that was organized for the recall, the Citizens for the Recall of Jake McGoldrick, turned in about 3,850 signatures on Sept. 14, only 300 more than what was required to get the recall on the ballot.

After doing a random survey of 500 signatures, the SF Department of Elections ruled an estimated 2,850 were good. Most of the invalid signatures were due to the signers not being registered voters or not living in the Richmond.

The Citizens for the Recall of Jake McGoldrick appealed the decision of the elections department Sept. 20, but Director John Arntz turned it down.

Proponents of the recall had cited McGoldrick's unwillingness to meet, or represent, his constituents at City Hall and his failure to uphold the will of city voters by moving to close some roads in Golden Gate Park on Saturdays. He also made local merchants mad by endorsing a plan to remove traffic lanes and rejigger parking spaces to facilitate a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) program on Geary Boulevard. The merchants have been demanding an economic impact study concerning the plan.

McGoldrick defended the park road closure plan, called Healthy Saturdays, by citing the rising obesity rates in children and by arguing that attendance at the cultural institutions does not suffer due to the closures. He says the BRT plan is needed to improve mass transit for the thousands of riders on the Muni Geary #38 line.

According to McGoldrick, the recall was misguided because there were insufficient reasons for removing him from office. He claims the recall was motivated by people who disagreed with his positions on city legislation.

But proponents of the recall say the effort was undertaken because McGoldrick was malfeasant in the discharge of his duties.

According to the records at the Ethics Commission, as of presstime, the Citizens group had raised about $45,000 for the recall and McGoldrick had raised about $65,000 to defeat the effort.

McGoldrick will serve the remainder of his second term, until January 2009. He can not run again due to term limits.