(The Center Square) – An effort to recall Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson is over for now, the mayor’s communications director said Thursday.
“Confirmed,” said Dawn Schellenberg in a one-word email to The Center Square on Thursday.
The effort to recall Wilson came to an abrupt end Thursday afternoon when the couple who filed the petition appeared in King County court asking to withdraw it.
Melinda Jacobson and her husband, Dale Osterud, said in court that they had received new information they needed to investigate against the mayor and wanted additional time to seek legal counsel, local media reported.
“It’s not over,” Jacobson told reporters after Thursday’s hearing in King County Superior Court, according to media reports. “(Wilson) has had nothing but a series of rash decisions and people are angry.”
The couple had criticized the mayor’s public safety policy, including her pause of a surveillance camera program, continuing crime related to prostitution in the North Aurora Aveenue corridor, and the mayor’s decision to ask former Police Chief Shon Barnes to resign.
A hearing had been scheduled for Monday to determine the merit of the couple’s recall petition before Judge Patrick Oishi.
If the judge had ruled in favor of the couple, they would still have needed to obtain signatures from 69,000 registered voters for a recall election to be held.
But instead, the couple appeared at a Thursday hearing and asked that they be allowed to withdraw their petition. Judge Oishi agreed to the couple’s request, according to reports.
Wilson has defended her public safety record, and Wilson’s lawyers had argued that the petition failed to meet the legal standards and was “legally and factually insufficient,” according to reports.