Petition being created to recall entire Springfield city commission after Haitian influx

SPRINGFIELD, Ohio — A petition to recall the entire city commission for Springfield is being processed in response to the town's leadership failing to address long-standing issues that have been made worse through the influx of Haitians in recent years.

Citing Section 59 of the city's charter, the petition, obtained by Blaze Media, says it is seeking to recall "the entire membership" of the Springfield City Commission. Mayor Rob Rue, Assistant Mayor David Estrop, and Commissioners Krystal Brown, Bridget Houston, and Tracey Tackett are named on the draft document.

The petition accuses the city of not enforcing building codes and says the city has used money earmarked for hiring police officers for other purposes. It also calls for the removal of the city's leadership because:

1. "The current members of the Commission have breached their public responsibilities."
2. "The Commission has created an untenable housing crisis by purposefully abandoning prior practices for consistent code enforcement. The Commission has permitted unscrupulous landlords to proliferate unsafe tenements which have caused their occupants to live in substandard conditions, have created substantial occupational hazards for public safety officers who are dispatched to such tenements, and caused long term residents to be squeezed out of the local housing market."
3. "The Commission has failed to maintain an adequate Police Department. Several years ago, the City voters imposed on themselves a special real estate tax levy to employ an additional 24 Police Officers. ... Instead of employing the additional 24 Police Officers, the Commissioners have spent the restricted funds for purposes other than the intended Police Officer compensation ..."

The lack of housing for U.S. citizens in Springfield has been one of the most pressing issues.

Julio Rosas/Blaze Media

A committee to oversee the petition process is still being assembled. Once that is completed, the committee will officially notify the city commissioners, who are then given five days to file a 200-word written statement in their defense. After that, the gathering of signers of the petition will be allowed to proceed.

A recall election will take place if at least 15% of registered voters in the last regular municipal election sign the petition within the 30-day period.

The lack of housing for U.S. citizens in Springfield has been one of the most pressing issues since the arrival of 20,000 Haitians within the past few years.

"What they'll do instead of having a single family in a home that's maybe a three-bedroom, they'll actually rent bedrooms out to individual families. So the landlord will technically triple his rent [income]," local Mark Sanders explained.

Blaze News made multiple calls to the Springfield city manager's office, but many of those calls went unanswered. Blaze News attempted to leave a message for one individual, but the mailbox was full.

U.S. citizens who have been pushed out of their homes and have been able to afford to move out of Springfield have done so, but not everyone has had the means. A source shared the following photos of encampments that have sprung up around the town.

Hear more on the subject from the "Blaze News Tonight" team in the video below:

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