As everyone waits to see how many recall petition signatures are validated by the Lee County Elections Office, the Fort Myers Beach Town Council approved a resolution to cover reasonable legal expenses Karen Woodson and John King rack up to fight the recall.
Town Attorney Nancy Stuparich advised the Town Council that Florida law requires them to cover the legal fees. She’s also researching whether or not insurance will cover the legal fees but said she’s leaning toward insurance not covering them. Both King and Woodson plan to fight the recall in court. It’s unclear at what point in the process they might do that.
If the Lee County Elections Office verifies that the recall committee did get signatures from 10% of the voters the process would continue with King and Woodson getting 5 days to issue a statement of defense (or they could resign). Once that statement is sent in, the recall committee then has 60 days to go back out and canvass again. In round two of the process they would need to get 15% of the voters a new recall petition. Then, the Lee County Elections Office would have to verify those as well. Lee County Election Supervisor Tommy Doyle’s office has until July 2nd to verify the first batch of signatures…