Corrected Recall Petition is Approved

A second attempt at filing a recall petition for Candy Ruedeman and Marge Campbell, members of the Prowers Medical Center board of directors, has been approved following needed corrections.  The original petition was submitted on August 25 to the Prowers County District Court, and from there to Audrey Kane, the Designated Election Official at PMC.  Kane rejected the petition on August 29, determining that the application did not comply with state statutes governing the recall election process.  She informed both Ruedeman and Campbell of the rejection, as well as the petition originators, Barbara Kuenzel and Joan Hanff, both Prowers Medical Center employees.

Since that notification, corrections have been made following the requirements of the Colorado Revised Statute Section 1-12-108, to include naming a third participant to the recall process, Connie Hill, also an employee of PMC.  Kane pointed out that one of the needed changes to the petition specified that a minimum of three persons be identified in the application. 

Now that Kane has approved the corrected petition applications, a minimum of 300 valid signatures for both parties, Campbell and Ruedeman, are required to initiate a recall vote.  Those persons must be eligible electors in the Prowers County Hospital District.   As the potential recall vote will be independent of the Prowers County Clerk and Recorder, Kane will determine if all the signatures are valid.  If all the requirements are met, she will set a date for the election and if the vote will be conducted by mail-in ballot or in-person.  Kane said the cost of the election will be a factor in how it is conducted.  The originators will have 60 days in which to collect the required 300 signatures.

The petition declaration alleges in general that Campbell and Ruedeman overstepped their authority as board members, interfering with day-to-day operations at Prowers Medical Center.  Ruedeman responded to those claims in a letter to The Prowers Journal website last week. Campbell  and Ruedeman also addressed the statements made in the petition declaration in an article in The Lamar Ledger.

By Russ Baldwin