Recall Drive Aims at Anaheim Mayor, Councilman : Politics: Organizers are upset the city borrowed $95 million to put in failed county investment pool. Tom Daly and Frank Feldhaus react angrily to the effort.

ANAHEIM — Organizers of a recall attempt against Mayor Tom Daly and Councilman Frank Feldhaus filed papers with the city clerk’s office Wednesday announcing their intention to circulate petitions that would begin the drive to oust the pair.

The papers for Feldhaus’ recall were filed correctly, but City Clerk Leonora Sohl said the group cannot yet target Daly because he is less than 90 days into his current term, which began Nov. 29.

“The papers on Mayor Daly will be returned,” said Sohl, who explained that the requirement is spelled out in the state Election Code.

The group is upset that the City Council approved borrowing $95 million to invest in Orange County’s failed investment pool. Steve White, leader of the recall movement, accused the two city officials of being “gamblers.”

“I’d love to see an entire new City Council in Anaheim and get rid of the good old boy atmosphere,” added Jack Shafer, one of the group’s members. “We need people who would listen to citizens and not just big interests like Disneyland.”

Daly and Feldhaus reacted angrily to the recall effort, characterizing its leaders as political enemies with scores to settle. They said the group is using the county bankruptcy as an excuse to try to oust them.

“No one from this group has talked to me about their concerns,” Daly said. “It’s far-fetched to blame any city official for a problem, which has its roots in the failed management of the county investment pool.”

Feldhaus said, “I think it’s a bogus thing. It’s a select group of people who are being aroused by listening to untruths being disseminated by some activists who have personal vendettas.”

White, who personally served Daly and Feldhaus with recall papers after Tuesday’s council meeting, said the group plans a legal challenge to Sohl’s contention that Daly cannot yet be targeted.

White said that even if the group is proven wrong, it will try again.

“The worst-case scenario is that we start over,” White said. “We’re not going to wait until (the county bankruptcy) issue dies down.”

White claims that although Daly’s second term as mayor began Nov. 29, he is still in the middle of an existing council term that began in 1992.

That circumstance is due to an election quirk that stemmed from a 1992 charter amendment, which changed how the city’s mayor is selected. In the past, the public elected a mayor for a two-year term from among sitting council members. Now, anyone can run for a four-year term as mayor.

Daly was in the middle of his term as mayor and a council member when he ran and won the at-large mayoral election in November. His council seat has not been filled.

But Sohl said Daly no longer holds his original seat.

In order to force a recall election, the group would have to gather the signatures of at least 10% of the city’s estimated 100,000 to 120,000 registered voters.

If a sufficient number of signatures are verified as registered Anaheim voters, a special election will be held within four months of the date the signatures are certified.

A new state law, which went into effect at the start of this year, requires that voters recall and replace candidates in the same election. The new law eliminates situations such as the one in Fullerton last year when a special recall election was held only three weeks before the November general election.