By ILSA MINOR

Escanaba Daily Press

ESCANABA — A group of Delta County residents circulating petitions to recall three county commissioners is making progress towards their goal despite obstacles that delayed their ability to collect signatures.

“We are recalling the three of them because they show a pattern of unethical behavior,” said Christiana Reynolds, who serves as a spokesperson for the Delta County Citizens for Ethical Leadership. “It’s a pattern of unethical behavior, and that’s what’s so frustrating about it. If we had hope that there was going to be any kind of changes, we wouldn’t be in this recall situation. We don’t have any sort of confidence that we’ll see any change of behavior or apologies or anything different from what we’ve already seen, which is, in our opinion, unacceptable behavior in our leadership.”

The Citizens for Ethical Leadership are seeking the removal of commissioners Bob Barron, of District 3; Bob Petersen, of District 5; and Commission Chair Dave Moyle, of District 4. While the recall language on the petitions being circulated specifically references the commissioners’ votes to terminate former Delta County Administrator Emily DeSalvo on Feb. 7, Reynold’s sees DeSalvo’s firing as a flash point for citizens, many of whom were unhappy with the commissioners prior to February.

“With Emily’s termination out of the blue, that was the straw that broke the camel’s back. That was sort of the catalyst that brought everyone together and we said, ‘OK, we have to be serious about this’ and that’s when we formed,” said Reynolds.

As of Friday, roughly 40% of the 666 signatures needed to place Moyle’s name on the May 2024 ballot and 45% of the 1,001 signatures needed to do the same for Barron have been collected. Signature collection has not yet started for District 5, but the Citizens for Ethical Leadership plan to start collecting during Escanaba’s Labor Day festivities.

“We’re one recall effort, but because we’re tackling three different areas we wanted to break us up into three different teams, and so each team got together separately and decided what their strategy was, like what works best for their area,” said Reynolds, who noted that all three district teams will be collecting during the Labor Day events.