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ONLY ONE FALLS IN BAY CITY RECALL ELECTION By Thomas Baird Bay City Beat Voters turned out in big numbers for the special Recall Election in Bay City on March 4, 2003. There were three City Commissioners being recalled in the 1st, 2nd and 8th wards. 1st Ward City Commissioner Colin Hintz was recalled with the largest number of yes votes at 516 and 305 no votes. Commissioner Hintz has been very controversial since day one of assuming his seat a little over three years ago. He was also the subject of a recall effort in his first year in office, and attempted to work with those people who wanted him removed right off the bat. 2nd Ward Commissioner Chris Hennessy and 8th Ward Commissioner Mike Buda retained their seats in the special election. Hennessy received 280 yes votes and had 468 no votes to keep the 21-year old City Commissioner in office. He is the youngest City Commissioner in the history of Bay City and was possibly going to be the youngest City Commissioner ever recalled from office. 8th Ward Commissioner Mike Buda received 259 yes votes and had 305 no votes in keeping his seat. The night before the election in a heated exchange at the public input portion of the Bay City Commission meeting Buda exchanged words with local attorney Milt Higgs. Higgs leveled some charges about Commissioner Buda's dealings in the past year and Buda jumped up and challenged him during the meeting. Buda responded to the charges about his 25 years in public office in Bay City and all that he has done for the City over that period of time. This widely covered exchange with one of the members of the group PURG could easily have swayed the election in his favor. This whole episode of Recall cast the City in a negative light for the past six months with a number of things going on. It deeply divided the City into two groups working on the recall. Several parties spent a considerable amount of money in efforts to either keep the Commissioners in office or have them removed. PURG, which stands for People United for Responsible Government, had in the beginning targeted 7 City Commissioners for recall over the firing of the former City Manager. They were only able to collect enough signatures for recalls in 3 city wards and were successful only in recalling the 2nd Ward Commissioner. A majority of the PURG members lived in the second ward and had been unhappy with the Commissioners performance over his three years in office, making him an easy target for recall. PURG spokeswoman Chris Chesny had several comments after the election. "We showed that we care about our community. We will still be trying to achieve our goal for a better Bay City," she commented. Chesny went on to say "We still might target some commissioners for recall. But we will definitely be involved in the upcoming general elections this August." The Say No to the Recall group had a big victory party after the results came in. They wanted to see not one Commissioner recalled, but were very happy at the results and will keep very active in supporting City Commission candidates in future elections in order to maintain balance in the City of Bay City. In the end PURG were successful only in the recall of one vulnerable targeted City Commissioner. So that's one out of seven for a 142 batting average. Not very good in laymen's eyes. We will see if this small group of disenchanted citizens stays active in Bay City politics over the next few years.
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