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SARAH CAVACINI/Palatka Daily News. Seventh Judicial Circuit Judge Kenneth Janesk II talks during a hearing Tuesday that involved Crescent City Mayor Michele Myers and Crescent City Commissioner Cynthia Burton.
Attempts to throw out the most recent allegations against the Crescent City mayor and a city commissioner failed Tuesday.
Mayor Michele Myers and Commissioner Cynthia Burton sued Craig Oates, chairman of Recall Crescent City Florida, the group attempting to remove them from office. The hearings for both elected officials took place Tuesday afternoon.
Seventh Judicial Circuit Judge Kenneth Janesk II allowed the latest allegations against Burton and Myers to move forward to an evidentiary hearing set for 1:30 p.m. Aug 15. Janesk allotted three hours for this hearing.
Janesk told Richard Mockler, Oates’ attorney, he has until 5 p.m. Aug. 4 to file any evidentiary exhibits or a witness list. Any rebuttal from Meagan Logan, the attorney for Myers and Burton, should be filed by Aug. 8, Janesk said.
The two elected officials sued Oates for “declaratory and injunctive relief” to get the latest recall petitions thrown out for being legally insufficient, as was the case when the recall committee tried to oust former Commissioner Judy West in 2021.
On May 5, 2021, Janesk granted West declaratory relief based on a recall petition that contained insufficient grounds. He also granted West’s request to enjoin any further recall proceedings based on the recall petition at the time.
He denied her request to strike down any further attempts to submit other recall petitions, court documents show.
This is not the first time the recall group has attempted to remove Burton from office. The last attempt went all the way to the 5th District Court of Appeal, which ruled the grounds for her to be recalled were legally insufficient, reversing Janesk’s lower court ruling.
Oates and other recall committee members filed two petitions, one against Burton and one against Myers, on June 27. They allege Burton committed malfeasance when she filed “frivolous petitions for injunction” that would have prohibited certain Crescent City residents from going within 500 feet of her home, City Hall and city administrative offices. The injunction, the group alleges, would have also kept people from speaking at public meetings and from voting at the South Putnam County Government Center.
Burton defended herself, saying she only filed injunctions against two of the recall committee members, Jim Hammond and Kevyn To. Evidence attached in court documents for the recent hearing show Burton tried to file an injunction against To for stalking. The 7th Judicial Circuit, however, denied her request.
“Petitioner has failed to allege facts sufficient to support the entry of an injunction for protection against domestic, repeat, dating or sexual violence; or stalking because there are insufficient allegations of stalking,” the records show.
No record regarding the injunction filed against Hammond was reported in the court records by Tuesday afternoon.
The recall committee claims Myers committed malfeasance by signing her name to a $2,561.50 check in 2021 without discussion by or approval from the City Commission. The check, which was written to pay West’s legal fees from the attempt to recall her, was also signed by Commissioner Harry Banks and was authorized by then-City Attorney Jay Asbury, who took the money from his account in the city’s General Fund.
According to city minutes, the $2,561.50 was part of the $10,000 the City Commission approved to move into Asbusry’s account for extra legal fees that were expected to occur during the ongoing discussions about whether to abolish the Crescent City Police Department.
The department’s abolishment in February 2021 triggered the recall attempt against West, and recall efforts against elected officials have continued ever since.