City secretary accepts recall petition for Councilman Harrison

For over an hour Wednesday, Plano city secretary Lisa Henderson counted 568 pages of a recall petition against Councilman Tom Harrison. After he refused to resign during a special session in February, residents came together under the name Our Plano One Plano with one singular hope: remove Harrison from the Plano City Council.

After weeks of canvassing, the group accumulated over 4,000 signatures to recall Harrison and bring his seat up for re-election.

During a short press conference, Ann Bacchus of Our Plano One Plano said, “We stand together today to say to Tom Harrison and anyone else who wants to do this that we reject this kind of bigotry, discrimination and intolerance. Plano is excellent and it is excellent because of all of you, because of the diversity. Our residents, Plano residents, deserve more than indignation.”

Once Henderson accepted the petition, she has five days to verify each signature and present a report to Plano City Council, which she’ll submit April 9 at the next Plano City Council meeting.

Al Samara, longtime friend of Harrison’s, acted as his spokesman during the press conference. He said he supported Harrison because he knows him to be “a pure-hearted guy. I know he is very comfortable reaching out to people,” he said.

Harrison has made comments to the public through his Facebook page and through Samara; however, in the weeks since the controversy, he’s remained relatively silent as opponents have grown louder.

“He’s being called an Islamophobe. He’s being called a xenophobe. You saw how much hate there was in that room there? There was no cooperative, ‘we’re all neighbors here’ going on in that room,” Samara said. “The councilman’s very shocked by all of this. He’s shocked by the way this opposition has pulled together.”

In Harrison’s original apology, he noted, “My action was personal in nature,” and his intent was to share a different perspective on religion in schools. In a more recent statement, he raised the question “how in the world did that thought,” referring to a Facebook post that called President Donald Trump to ban Islam in schools, “get converted into slavery and homeless veterans? And ultimately into an anti-Muslim attack ... Anyone that knows me will attest to me not being ‘anti’ anything. Some of the items said to be attributed to me, I have NEVER seen.”

Bacchus and several supporters made it clear they will not accept Harrison’s apology, and they still implore him to resign.

“Mr. Harrison, wherever you are, you have apologized for your hurtful words, but you do not acknowledge the consequences that comes with those hateful words. We cannot accept your apology when your apology puts your interests ahead of ours,” Bacchus said.

If the signatures are verified and found in accordance with state law and the local charter, a recall race will be held in November, toward the end of his term. Residents can challenge the petition. At that point, a judge must rule whether the petition is sufficient or insufficient. But according to Paige Mims, Plano city attorney, recall petitions are rarely ruled insufficient.

“I don’t know of any court opinion that has determined a reason to be insufficient. And the courts are clear ... city staff and the council are not to judge the sufficiency of the reasons given. It’s for either the voters to decide at the election or for the court to evaluate if a challenge is brought to court,” Mims said.

Even with a recall, studies show elected officials aren’t always removed from office. According to a 2008 survey from the Texas Municipal League, recalled officials are seldom removed from their seats.