Petitioner Apologizes For City Recall Effort

By Tammy Gray-Searles
   “I apologize to these two gentlemen,” Lawrence Gallegos said regarding recall petitions he filed earlier this month against Holbrook Mayor Jeff Hill and Councilman Kent Darris.
   According to Gallegos, he did not write the statements on the recall petitions, does not agree with their contents and was duped into believing he was running for council during a regular election, not as part of a recall.
   Gallegos contacted the Tribune-News on Feb. 15, and asked to speak on the record about the situation. He noted that he wanted his own statements regarding the recall to be made public, and also wished to make a public apology to the council members, their families and the citizens of Holbrook.
   “It’s sad. It’s very sad,” he said. “It wasn’t my intentions to do that. I’m embarrassed to even see my name like that.”
   He related that he was approached by Pam Searls (of no relation to this reporter), the daughter of former mayor Bryan Smithson, and asked if he would be willing to run for council. According to Gallegos, Searls told him that he wouldn’t have to collect signatures or do any campaigning, everything would be taken care of for him.
   “I thought she wanted to help me,” Gallegos related. “I thought I had the Smithson family backing me up and I would not have to take the papers around and get them signed.”
   Gallegos explained that he was under the impression that council seats were up for election, and he would be running as a regular candidate.
   “I’m not going to recall someone when I don’t know anything about the person,” he said.
   According to Gallegos, he has not been following any of the recent events at city hall, and does not know why anyone would want to recall members of the council, or what sort of controversy has been brew-ing. He noted that he wanted to run for council to try to establish programs and activities for local youth, not to become involved in disagreements.
   “I just thought I was doing something good for kids,” Gallegos commented.
   He explained that he has a number of ideas for activities to help keep youngsters out of trouble and for cleaning up the town, and that is why he has always wanted to serve on the council. Gallegos noted that he ran before, and wasn’t elected, and was flattered when he received an offer of assistance from Searls.
   “You get flattered, you’re happy,” he said.
   Gallegos noted that Searls first broached the idea when he ran into her at the courthouse, when he went to pay a fine for a family member. According to Gallegos, she told him that he should run for council, and that she would be willing to help him. After that, Gallegos stated, Searls continued to call his home, and asked him to attend meetings of the council and various citizen groups.
   He explained that he did attend one council meeting, during which Searls asked him to speak to the council and tell them that he was dissatisfied with the way they were running the city. According to Galle-gos, he did not speak because he did not know enough about what was going on to decide for himself whether or not he was dissatisfied.
   According to Gallegos, Searls continued to call often, and then one day during a snowstorm arrived at his house with election paperwork. He explained that he went outside to meet her, and she gave him the paperwork already filled out and told him that he just needed to sign it. Gallegos related that the paperwork had a lot of small writing on it, but he did not read it, instead he took it and put it in the shed, where it stayed for two days. He noted that he was unsure about signing the paperwork because his wife was op-posed to him running for council.
   Gallegos went on to say that Searls called him two days later and asked him if he had signed the paper-work. He then decided that he did want to run for council and signed the paperwork and took it to city hall. According to Gallegos, he did not read the papers before signing them.
   “I trusted her,” he said.
   Gallegos noted that he planned to withdraw the recall petitions as soon as city offices opened following the holiday weekend.
   “Eight o’clock Tuesday morning, I’ll be there to recall the papers,” he said.
   Gallegos apologized numerous times, noting that he wished he would have taken the time to read the papers he filed.
   According to his wife, Lupe, they did not realize the contents, or that they were for a recall, until they read the article in the Tribune-News.
   Gallegos emphasized that the words on the recall petition were not his own, and he does not agree with the statements.
   “I was raised to respect people and be nice, and if you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say it,” he said.
   Gallegos noted that he is hurt and embarrassed, and sorry for hurting others by signing the papers. He also noted that he is unsure why Searls involved him in the recall.
   “She’s a very nice person, but I don’t know what she’s got herself involved with,” he said. “That holds the city back when they have to deal with things like that.”
   His wife expressed more anger at the situation.
   “Man, talk about being duped,” she said. “Why are they stooping to such terrible, terrible things? She should have said, ‘This is for a recall. This is what you're signing.’”
   Gallegos expressed his hope that the city could quickly move beyond the current controversy.
   “I see so many things that could be done,” he said. "We all could work together instead of all this.”