Campaign to recall Green under way.

Byline: Matt Cooper The Register-Guard

An effort to recall Lane County Commissioner Bobby Green began Monday, as opponents of the board's recent enactment of an income tax targeted one of the three commissioners who voted for it.

Paperwork for a recall signature-gathering effort was submitted to county elections, said Ben Pooler, a chief petitioner with the We Said No political action committee.

The group gathered enough signatures in a single Saturday last month to force a May 15 vote on the tax.

Green voted in February for the county's first income tax, along with Commissioners Faye Stewart and Bill Dwyer. Their aim was to avoid cutting services and 250 county jobs if Congress doesn't renew $47 million in annual timber payments.

The income tax plan sparked what some officials have called unprecedented citizen anger across the county. Voters in November had rejected an income tax to pay for public safety services - the 12th straight defeat for a county money measure for public safety since 1996 - and critics ripped the trio for enacting an income tax just four months later.

"We've lost trust in the county commissioners to make the right decision on moneys in the budget," Pooler said. "We need to really look at the budget and find out where we can slice from reasonably without cutting public safety."

The support is strong for recall of all three commissioners, Pooler said, but under elections rules, only Green is subject to recall.

Stewart and Dwyer were re-elected in November and started new four-year terms in January. Election rules prohibit recall until an official has served six months of the current term, said Roxann Marshall, elections supervisor.

Green, who represents north Eugene, is the board's longest-serving member at 12 years. Of the recall effort, he said: "I recognize that it's a process and I have lot of respect for the process."

Once a petition is approved, organizers have 90 days to collect the needed signatures - 4,274 in this case.

The We Said No committee is helping fund the effort, although none of that committee's organizers lives in Green's district, Pooler said. Pooler is a member of the recall committee, which will be led by two residents of Green's district, he said.

If the recall effort gathers enough signatures, Green will have two choices: Resign or file a statement justifying his service, which would prompt a vote in his district.

Since 1987, there have been at least eight recall efforts in Lane County. Four were successful, removing four board members from the Coburg City Council (1987); two from the board for the Lowell rural fire district (1994); Coburg Mayor Mary Guldager (1995); and Florence Councilor Eileen McGregor (1998), according to county election records.