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Recall 29 woos GOP

January 22, 2004

By James E. Doyle
The Desert Trail

TWENTYNINE PALMS, CA -- With little more than a
month to go before they must submit their petitions to
recall four members of the Twentynine Palms City
Council, and having reportedly gathered less than half
of the signatures required to force such a recall, local
activist group Recall29 is attempting to win support for
its effort among other local organizations.

One such group was the Twentynine Palms Republican Women Federated, Southern Division, which hosted Recall29 spokespersons Holly Griffin and Joe Breuer at their weekly meeting and luncheon on Thursday, Jan. 15. Griffin and Breuer spoke for over an hour, outlining their grievances with City Hall and slamming local media for what they describe as "biased and factually incorrect" coverage.

Griffin, a former member of the planning commission and once a candidate for city council herself, was sca-thing in her indictment of city politics, which she described as corrupt, out-of-touch and unfair. She went on at length describing what she calls the city's "business-unfriendly atmosphere," reeling off a laundry list of largely anecdotal accounts of individuals stymied by allegedly restrictive business codes and political favoritism.

In relating the tale of a local bed and breakfast startup which was denied a conditional use permit by the city, Griffin alleged that the owners of the Twentynine Palms Inn and other local bed and breakfasts had "flat-out told the city council, 'we don't want the competition.' So they killed it."

Griffin went on to claim that the current council "does not want new businesses in Twentynine Palms."

She also excoriated the city for what she says is a failure to follow its own codes, selective enforcement of code violations and allowing the city staff to "do pretty much as they please." She reiterated Recall29's position that the entire council must be recalled so that "we can totally change the environment at city hall, so we can cut out this cancer that has been growing there."

She reserved particularly harsh words for City Manager Michael Swigart, at one point accusing him of improper usage of the city credit card.

"He will use the city credit card for a charge - which he is allowed to do - but then he will turn in a receipt to be personally reimbursed. So he's being reimbursed for money that the city has spent in other cities."