Plano Councilman Sues To Halt Recall Election

PLANO, TX — Tom Harrison, the Plano city councilman embroiled in a right against a recall election, is suing the city in an effort to derail recall proceedings.

Harrison, who sits in Place 7 on the Plano City Council, first came under fire after sharing a video that depicted Muslim students praying and wearing hijabs. The video bore the label, "Share if you think Trump should ban Islam in American schools."

A social media firestorm broke out almost immediately after the video showed up on his personal Facebook page. Within hours, Plano Mayor Harry LaRosiliere announced a press conference to call for Harrison's resignation.

LaRosiliere said in the conference Harrison's behavior is inconsistent with the city's equal rights policy, which prohibits discrimination based on religion. The post was taken down from Harrison's Facebook page only minutes before the press conference began.

"Mr. Harrison's conduct is unbefitting of a council member that serves a diverse community and serves the City of Excellence," the mayor said. "I find this post abhorrent."

The following day, Harrison penned an apology on his Facebook page, claiming in it that he does not have anti-Islam sentiments and instead shared the video to enforce his belief that Christianity "is not the only religion being targeted for exclusion in our public school."

Plano residents petitioned to recall Harrison, and on April 9, the city council voted 6-0 to call the election. Petitioners gathered and submitted 4,400 signatures in favor of the recall.

On Monday, June 18, Harrison filed a motion in a state appeals court in an effort to stop the recall from going on the November ballot.

The suit names city secretary Lisa Henderson, who certified the petition. It suggests that she failed to follow the city charter's procedure in certifying the petition to recall Harrison.

The charter requires that such petitions be signed by at least 30 percent of the number of votes cast at the regular election of the city, although it does not specify which election should be considered when counting signatures.

Harrison's lawyer, Art Martinez de Vara, argues, the charter, along with common sense, require that the total number of needed signatures should be based on the most recent general election.

Plano's city attorney, Paige Mims, told Patch that the lawsuit's assertion is wrong. She pointed to a provision added in 2015 that specifies that the election data that should be considered in a recall should be taken from "the regular municipal election of the city at which the officer was elected."

Harrison contends in his lawsuit that 8,163 signatures were necessary to prompt the recall, rather than the 4,400 that were submitted. The 8,163 is 30 percent of the 27,208 votes cast in Plano's most recent general election in May 2017.

But per the provision added to the city charter in 2015, only 2,790 votes are needed to prompt the recall. The 2,790 votes amounts to 30 percent of the total 9,301 votes cast in the 2015 election when Harrison was elected to the council.

The city was first faced with the potential of recall elections in 2015, after the Plano Tomorrow plan passed. Residents who were opposed to the plan's intention to shift Plano from a suburban city to a multi-family, urban city pushed to recall council-members who voted in favor of the plan, Mims said.

Citizens and journalists contacted the city secretary via email to ask questions about the recall process. Mims shared two of those emails with Patch.

In each of the emails, Henderson, the city secretary, stated that the number of needed signatures is based on the election in which the council member was elected.

If the court sides with Harrison, the recall petition will be null and void. And should residents petition for his recall again, they'll be required to come up with 8,337 signatures.

Lead image via City of Plano