Cotati recall vote Tuesday brings end to divisive campaigns

<p>Cotati residents vote Tuesday on whether to recall Councilman George Barich — and, if so, who should replace him.</p><p>The vote brings to a close a contentious political season in which Barich and his opponents traded charges of unfair or illegal campaign tactics, and into which issues such as racism, free speech and personal behaviors were injected.</p><p>On the election's eve, some voters said they were relieved that the divisive campaign was coming to an end.</p><p>“Who isn't?” Cotati resident Steve Anderson, a recall supporter, said on Monday. “It's too bad things had to come to this extreme.”</p><p>Also before voters is the question of who should replace Barich if he is recalled. Those candidates are: Linell Hardy, a community volunteer and retired businesswoman, Susan Harvey, a former information technology manager, and Eric Kirchmann, an English teacher and school board member.</p><p>County election officials said that of 2,253 absentee ballots issued to Cotati voters, 995 had been returned as of Monday morning.</p><p>Recall supporters mobilized around a series of controversies involving Barich, who joined city government after a long career spent criticizing it. </p><p>Those controversies ranged from his unauthorized use of city stationery to write to President Barack Obama criticizing the federal stimulus package, to a photo of himself in blackface that he posted on a personal website, to a vote he cast that prevented the cash-strapped city from considering whether to pursue a special sales tax measure.</p><p>Barich and his supporters said his opponents represent a minority of sore losers who didn't want him elected in the first place and who then, disagreeing with his positions, have sought to overturn the results of an election.</p><p>Barich critics gathered 1,045 signatures in support of the recall election, roughly 25 percent of the city's registered voters and among whom were some of his previous supporters.</p><p>“I voted for Barich before, I thought he had a lot of good things to say,” Nancy Reynolds, 80, said on Monday. She said his vote preventing a sales tax measure from going to Cotati's voters had changed her mind.</p><p>In July, Barich cast the sole council vote against declaring the city in a fiscal emergency, effectively preventing the council from voting on the tax measure. He said it was impossible to know whether the city was in a fiscal emergency until the council passed a budget, which it had yet to do at the time. </p><p>On Monday, another Cotati resident, Tim O'Brien, declined to say whether he would vote to recall Barich. Instead, he put into a nutshell the issue voters are asked to wrestle with today.</p><p>“Basically, it was a democratic election,” that propelled Barich into office,” O'Brien said.</p><p>“A recall is part of the process,” he said, “but I'm not sure he did something bad enough to deserve it. And I'm not sure, means just that, I'm not sure.”</p>