'Recall for Houston' gets ready to start collecting signatures to put recall on the ballot

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- Could the fate of Mayor John Whitmire soon be decided by Houston voters?

A group working to recall the mayor is getting ready to start collecting signatures.

Mayor John Whitmire has been in office for a year and three months.

And he's confident he'll finish out his term.

"It's silly. I appreciate people reviewing what I'm doing, and we're very proud of the team that we have and the public support we have," Whitmire said when we asked him about the recall effort.

Recall for Houston was organized eight months ago as a registered political action committee.

"If somebody doesn't do something to stop him, hold him accountable in some way, then he's going to continue destroying the city," said Alejandro Alegria with Recall for Houston.

Group leaders criticize the mayor's financial policies and a deal he struck to give Houston firefighters back pay in order to settle a long-running legal dispute.

Transportation is also high on their list of grievances with the mayor.

After coming into office, Whitmire changed redevelopment plans for areas like Montrose Boulevard and Shepherd Drive, prioritizing cars over pedestrians and cyclists.

His administration has ripped out new bike lanes on Houston Avenue near Downtown and Austin Street in Midtown.

"What we're seeing right now in the mayor's office is an active reversal of safe street infrastructure, and it's just going to put more Houstonians at risk," said Manuel Cohen with Recall for Houston. "It's not just a waste of money. It's the threat of lives right now."

Getting a recall initiative on a ballot isn't easy.

Based on the number of voters in the last mayoral election, the group will need to collect more than 63,000 signatures within thirty days.

Those signatures will then have to be checked for accuracy and notarized before the recall could get on a ballot for residents to vote for or against.

The mayor's spokesperson told us previous administrations have faced recall efforts.

The assistant city secretary told us nobody had filed a recall petition for the mayor or any council members in the past 25 years.

In fact, he wasn't sure a recall petition had ever been filed in the city of Houston.

The mayor's spokesperson told ABC13 she was referring to talk about recalls, including this change.org petition, not the actual process being followed through.

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