Cruiser Petition Tossed
Recht: Affirmations aren’t legal affidavitsBy CASEY JUNKINS Staff Writer
Article Photos
Article PDFs
Cruiser Petition Order
WHEELING - City voters may someday decide if police Chief Robert Matheny must continue placing two officers in each patrol cruiser. That election, however, will not take place anytime soon.
Following months of debate, legwork and lawsuits, Ohio County Circuit Judge Arthur Recht on Thursday declared the petitions submitted by city residents George Jones and William Hefner invalid because the documents did not feature the appropriate affidavits, as Section 81 of the City Charter appears to require. Recht, though, did not seem to believe Jones and Hefner were at fault because he said Wheeling should not have accepted the petitions in the first place.
"My question is, 'How did this certification ever come out of the city clerk's office?'" Recht said. "I mean, it is just blatantly wrong."
"All (George Jones and Hefner) did was try to get signatures. They should have been told they needed affidavits," the judge added.
In July, City Clerk Janice Jones - who attended the Thursday proceedings - certified 2,469 signatures collected by George Jones and Hefner to council. Janice Jones originally rejected the petitions because the collectors did not meet the minimum number of signatures.
In August, Mayor Andy McKenzie, Vice Mayor Eugene Fahey, Councilwoman Gloria Delbrugge, and Councilmen James Tiu, Don Atkinson, Robert "Herk" Henry and Vernon Seals voted unanimously to accept the signatures in preparation for a city-wide election on the 1972 ordinance mandating two police officers to ride in each cruiser.
"How was something like this laid before the council of the city of Wheeling with a representation that it complied with the charter of the city of Wheeling when it obviously did not?" Recht said.
Regarding petitions submitted to Wheeling, the charter reads "... there shall be attached thereto the affidavit of the circulator thereof stating that each signature was made in the circulator's presence. ..." Black's Law Dictionary defines "affidavit" as "a voluntary declaration of facts written down and sworn to by the declarant before and officer authorized to administer oaths, such as a notary republic."
City Solicitor Rosemary Humway-Warmuth told Recht that Janice Jones is the officer authorized to accept or reject such petitions, noting "the affirmations are placed at the bottom of each page," in referring to George Jones and Hefner signing the documents.
Recht, though, asked Humway-Warmuth, "Where is the affidavit?"
Paul Harris, attorney for George Jones and Hefner, then told Recht, "There are no affidavits. It is absolutely clear that there are none." "When the city told my clients they did not have enough signatures, they made no mention of affidavits."
After the hearing Thursday, Humway-Warmuth said Janice Jones "acted in good faith" in accepting the petitions.
"The city relied upon the circulators' signatures at the bottom of each page. ... The city clerk believed in the truth and veracity of their (George Jones' and Hefner's) statements," she said.
Humway-Warmuth also said she recently asked Harris if George Jones and Hefner would sign a "certification affidavit" to prove that the signatures were genuine, but they declined to sign such a document.
"Something was provided to the city that they (George Jones and Hefner) won't even stand up in open court today and give us an oath of affirmation," Humway-Warmuth said.
Recht, though, said such action would have no bearing on his decision because the affidavit should have been filed with the petitions.
After council voted to accept the petitions, Humway-Warmuth immediately filed suit against George Jones to hold the election in May, rather than within 90 days as the City Charter seems to mandate. Members of Wheeling's Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 38 then claimed some of the signatures were forged, or not properly witnessed, prompting Recht to allow the FOP to intervene in the original lawsuit.
FOP attorney Joseph John said Thursday he and his clients were pleased the matter was dismissed.
Though they saw their efforts to achieve an election on the two-officer per cruiser mandate, George Jones and Hefner did not seem too discouraged by the outcome.
"We have not yet decided what steps we are going to take now," George Jones said. "It is possible that we could go back out to collect signatures again."
"We have to do something about this. ... We are not giving up," Hefner added.
|
EllisWyatt
|
|
|---|---|
|
11-14-09 12:19 PM
|
Should have been "unless THERE is...". Sorry. Haven't had my coffee, yet.
|
|
EllisWyatt
|
|
|
11-14-09 12:18 PM
|
City of Pittsburgh police get killed in the line of duty and they ride 1 man to a cruiser-unless their is an emergency situation that requires two men. Are the Wheeling police saying that they are not qualified to work alone? That they are not up to the job? If they require their workload to be cut in half, shouldn't they take a pay cut? The point is not whether or not there should be 1 or 2 men in a crusier. The ONE and ONLY point is to allow the Chief, who is responsible for results, to have a free hand in the deployment of his assets. How can you make a chief responsible for policing the city and then tell him he cannot manage his forces?
|
|
pickles
|
|
|
11-13-09 7:40 PM
|
Rudy, that's very brave of you to criticise police and call them names while hiding behind your computer. We are all very impressed.
|
|
Shakespeare
|
|
|
11-13-09 7:09 PM
|
Judge Recht knows what he is doing,wish he was a prosecutor
|
|
Shakespeare
|
|
|
11-13-09 7:08 PM
|
There is no need for 2 officers per cruiser maybe this police force are unqualified to do the job.
|
|
GETACLUE
|
|
|
11-13-09 6:06 PM
|
RudyKing IDIOT ....There how was that?
|
|
ernest
|
|
|
11-13-09 4:46 PM
|
I probably should proof-read my posts. Oh Well, you know what I mean.
|
|
ernest
|
|
|
11-13-09 4:45 PM
|
I totally agree. When this first came up, I wrote that this should be decided by the chief. He knows (or should know) a better how best to distribute his men to best protect the city than I, or probably 99% of Wheeling. Let the man do his job.
|
|
richardwhee
|
|
|
11-13-09 2:21 PM
|
WHLGWV---- How right you are. Why hire a person and then tie his hands, due to a greedy union?
|
|
Whlgwv
|
|
|
11-13-09 12:03 PM
|
Instead of dwelling on the term "two man cruiser" why not change it to.......Should the Chief of Police have the authority to run his own department?
|
|
GETACLUE
|
|
|
11-13-09 10:45 AM
|
"Bunch of small town Fifes, too scared to work alone. Can you say sissy?"............. NO BUT AFTER READING YOUR POST I CAN SAY IDIOT.
|
|
JamesT
|
|
|
11-13-09 8:49 AM
|
Was ACORN involved?
|
|
Shark88
|
|
|
11-13-09 8:33 AM
|
City leaders should have consulted with their law department during this process and prior to voting to accept the signautures. Looks like a lot of people screwed up.
|
|
GETACLUE
|
|
|
11-13-09 8:03 AM
|
LordDunmore and meyers the the rules were in place long before this petition was started. The problem is that you have people more concerned with keeping their names in the newspaper than adhering to the rules. My signature was forged on this petition as well as 15 others on the page that my name appeared on. If the names weren't FORGED why wouldn't Heffner and Jones sign the affidavit? I'll tell you why because they knew they were opening themselves up to LAWSUITS. Their may still be a prosecution of the forger and I will tell you it is not Heffner or Jones. The FORGER initials are B.L. I am currently consulting an attorney to see exactly what legal recourse there may be.
|
|
LordDunmore
|
|
|
11-13-09 7:56 AM
|
I will gladly sign and notarize my own info sheet and send it in. The people must be heard!
|
|
LordDunmore
|
|
|
11-13-09 7:54 AM
|
You can't beat these government officals or unions at entangled bureaucracy. If Jones & Hefner would have supplied individual sheets of paper with all info and signatures of each citizen, they would require every page be notarized. If they accomplished that, they would say the stack of individual notarized names no longer is a legal petition, as it is no longer a list, but a stack.
|
|
meyers
|
|
|
11-13-09 7:40 AM
|
There is so much corrupted people in that city building it a real shame we know the people who signed the petition were good and no one forged anyones name only someone who was against the petition. Those who says there name was forged who are they and should come forward and say so instead of staying in hiding from the real people who signed the petition
|
|
GETACLUE
|
|
|
11-13-09 7:30 AM
|
I still want the FORGERY of my signature PROSECUTED.
|
|
tmoore
|
|
|
11-13-09 7:20 AM
|
The crooks live on.
|