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COPPERAS COVE - A recall of four city council members is a lot closer to reality today after voters overwhelmingly approved amendments Saturday to the city charter that gives citizens the right to recall.

Diane Steele, a vocal advocate of former Mayor Roger O’Dwyer, is leading the charge to recall Mayor pro tem Robert Reeves and council members Mark Peterson, Charlotte Heinze and Ray Don Clayton.

Ms. Steele said she is seeking to have Heinze recalled particularly because of the Sept. 11, 2007, e-mail she wrote to three other council members and City Attorney James Thompson seeking advice on how to have O’Dwyer and Councilman Larry Sheppard removed from office.

“It started out with our mayor and then Mr. Sheppard,” Ms. Steele said. “It’s everyone we seem to elect.”

Ms. Steele said she was waiting for the outcome of the May 10 election to begin the recall petitions.

Until Saturday, Copperas Cove residents really didn’t have the power to recall members of the city council.

Voters passed 28 amendments to the city charter, including amendments 18 and 19, which gave qualified voters the right to recall council members for any stated reason.

Both amendments are virtually identical, Ms. Steele said, so the council will have to determine which one will actually be added to the city charter.

Voters also passed amendment 20, which calls for the recall petition submitted to the city secretary to be signed by 51 percent or 750 - whichever is greater - of the city’s qualified voters, and amendment 21, which gives newly elected officials a 180-day grace period from any recall.

“I feel like something has to be done. I don’t think this is ever going to straighten out,” Ms. Steele said. “Our only hope is that we are able to get this council to do something to wake up. The people are so tired of this that they want to clean house and start fresh.”

Steele said she believes that so many positions will be affected by the recall, if the recalls are successful, that the state will have to intervene and that is what she hopes.

While the recall of a mayor or a city council member is becoming more common, it is not usual for so many on a sitting city council to be recalled.

In 2006, a watchdog group in the tiny town of Cibolo circulated a 184-page recall petition calling for the removal of five city council members and the mayor, but ultimately those six individuals kept their seats.

Sheppard said he is in favor of the voters taking this kind of action.

“There needs to be a recall,” Sheppard said. “I am a firm believer in people taking back their city.”

Ms. Steele is hopeful that the outcome will be different than what happened in Cibolo two years ago.

“We want to start fresh,” she said. “We’ve been putting up with this problem for too long in this city.”

Ms. Heinze, Clayton, Peterson and Reeves could not be reached for comment.

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