Recall Petition Launched Against Pasadena City Councilman

PASADENA, CA -- An attorney on Friday submitted a petition to the City Clerk that launches the process to recall District 5 Councilman Victor Gordo has performed poorly on a range of issues, including homelessness and affordable housing.

The councilman, however, is saying that the recall effort is an attempt by unlicensed medical marijuana dispensary operators to exact revenge on him for aiding a crackdown over the past couple of years on unsanctioned weed shops.

Petitioners would need to collect a large number of signatures about 25 percent of District 5 voters, or between 5,000 and 6,000 registered voters, to trigger a recall election.

The filing of the petition didn't come as a surprise to the politician. Gordo told the Pasadena Star-News that a signature gatherer for the recall effort actually showed up at his home on Feb. 1 and asked him to sign the petition, not realizing that it was Gordo himself that he was speaking to.

When Gordo commented that the document might not be legal and tried to take a picture of the petition, he said, the signature gatherer grabbed the paperwork back and fled.

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