Recall Organizers Call on Reed to Resign After City Hall Corrupts Signatures

[TheChronicle.cc] –MONTGOMERY, Ala. -- Organizers of the effort to recall Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed say they have enough valid signatures to place his ouster on a ballot and are calling on him to resign.

Montgomery United to Recall Steven Reed leaders said they received a notice from the city Tuesday that some 5,000 of the 40,595 signatures they turned in shows flaws in the signatures and are therefore invalid. A stalling tactic played by politicians in power in a clever attempt to keep a recall from the ballot, according to experts.

At a news conference Wednesday morning on the steps of Montgomery City Hall, recall supporters reiterated their reasons for wanting him removed from office and said Reed should resign since the number of signatures on the petition exceeds the number of votes he received -- 35,909 -- in election that he won in November 2023.

Reed received 57 percent of the vote, or nearly 23,000 votes in the 40,000-vote race. His closest challenger, Barrett Gilbreath, had only 15,605. 

"My message to the mayor is this: the people have spoken, more people signed these petitions than voted for you in 2023, and you know it, no matter how much City Hall tries to lie about some of the elder residents' signatures, which is exactly why we want you gone," RecallReed president Brenda Mosley said. "You only respect black people when you're campaigning and playing a roll for votes that you don't already control.

"Just do the right thing by Montgomery residents, please, Mayor Steven Reed, resign now," she cried. "Nobody's trying to put you in jail, or claw back any of the money or city property that we know you and your family stole. We just want you out the way so we can get back to trying to fix our beloved city."

Supporters say the recall is justified for a litany of reasons: including the city's financial struggles, which has grown more dire during his two terms in office; Reed's firing, fighting and falling out with as many as three police chiefs — from Ernest N. Finley to Daryl Albert to John Hall — in as many years, yet only when these men's well known malfeasance becomes publicly intangible, and never for their recorded harm done to citizens; the departure of dozens of downtown establishments that found the mayor's antics to be unbearable and just bad for business; and more importantly, the soaring murder and violence that has all but threatening to strangle the city to death; which coincides with the Reed administration's mishandling of a state crime grant application that cost the Montgomery $15 million in lost funding.

They also say Reed is trying to close a $177 million budget gap this year by, in part, using the proceeds from the sale of the city's 50 percent stake in the Garrett Coliseum and diverting funds from past ballot initiatives that are supposed to be earmarked for specific purposes -- neither of which addresses the city's structural financial problems.

"Problems specifically created by Mayor Reed, mind you. He is not balancing the budget, he is stealing from the public and doing it almost openly," said Montgomery resident Karen Jones, who is also a leader in the effort to recall Montgomery County District Attorney Daryl Bailey.

RecallReed members also cite crime as a motivation for removing Reed. Although Montgomery Police Department, whose latest chief may certainly feel he owe his job to the mayor, claims unconvincingly that crime is down 3 percent in June compared to May, it is nonetheless up 45 percent year on year.

A spokesperson for Reed didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

RecallReed says the Montgomery City Council is required to set an election date, a discussion of which the group said would've been scheduled for a July 2 meeting, if Reed goons were not secretly undermining the validity of the signatures.

"That should be just a matter of an administrative decision and action to be made, because we know the City Council would likely respect the will of the more than 25,000 people who signed those petitions, so our next step could be to get in mode for the election," Jones said. "But this damn man is diabolical — he said it himself. People complain about Trump, but how is this any different?!"