Mandeville recall effort stalls

Just two weeks from deadline, an effort to depose Mandeville Mayor Eddie Price is “slow as molasses,” organizer Mike O’Connor says. The petition to force a recall election must have signatures from one third – or 2,363 – of the city’s registered voters by Feb. 18. If the registrar of voters certifies the signatures, the measure would appear on the next ballot. So far, though, just a couple of hundred people have put pen to paper. O’Connor says many voters are fearful of having their name associated with such an effort. But after reading a report in The Times-Picayune this week, several of them called to get copies of the petition to take to their neighborhoods. “I’ll be very surprised if we do get enough signatures,” O’Connor says. “But I’d do it all over again.” Both a federal grand jury and the Louisiana attorney general are investigating possible wrongdoing by Price and other Mandeville officials. To read more about Price and the recall effort in the current issue of 10/12, click here. – Penny Brown Font