The Saunders County Courthouse. (Image Courtesy of the Saunders County Treasurer)
Article by Elsie Stormberg/Wahoo Newspaper
Published July 28, 2021
WAHOO – Doris Karloff is still reeling. The District 2 Saunders County Supervisor was and still is in disbelief after learning on July 22, 2021 that a constituent had filed a recall petition with the intention of booting her from the county board.
On July 21, 2021, the day before Karloff learned of the petition, Rhonda Carritt of Wahoo filed a petition to recall the Yutan supervisor. Carritt’s reasoning for the filing stems from Karloff allegedly not representing “the best interests of the district.”
“The residents of Saunders County District 2 hold that our elected Supervisor Doris Karloff has not represented the best interests of the district,” the statement read. “Choosing to ignore recommendations of the county planning board, favoring big business over its residents, putting personal and family gain above the residents and being out of touch with her constituents. For this, Karloff should be recalled.”
Karloff said she believes Carritt’s reasoning is not valid and assumes the petition is related to the controversial solar farm conditional use permit the county board unanimously approved with stipulations at a meeting in May 2021. Karloff did not attend that meeting and did not vote on the agenda item.
Karloff was one of many Yutan area landowners that received a letter from Community Energy about leasing their land to house a solar farm south of Yutan. Karloff’s son Chad, who farms family land as well as his own personal property in the area, did not discard the letter like his parents and other residents considered doing.
“(We) looked at it and basically thought of tossing it away,” Karloff said.
Karloff’s son will be one of a handful landowners in eastern Saunders County to go into contract with Community Energy to develop this 500-acre solar farm.
Because of this conflict of interest, Karloff said she abstained from all discussion and action related to the solar farm regulations and permits which can be confirmed in meeting minutes recorded between February and May 2021. The minutes reflect that Karloff, as chairperson, relinquished her power to District 1 Supervisor Dave Lutton during agenda items connected to the solar topic.
“I have tried to do my best to make sure that I was doing everything legally correct,” Karloff said.
According to the filing, Carritt requested 75 petitions as the principal circulator. In order for the special election to go through, Carritt and volunteers will need to obtain at least 573 valid signatures from registered voters within District 2 which includes Union, Wahoo, Marble and most of Clear Creek townships.
Each petition has space for a total of 20 signatures which would mean Carritt and volunteers have space for 1,500 signatures. Lindgren said because Carritt requested so many petitions, Lindgren and her office will only validate up to 573 signatures.
This determination comes from Nebraska State Statute 32-1303 where it states “the petition shall be signed by registered voters equal in number to at least 35% of the number of votes cast for the person receiving the most votes for such office in the last general election.”
Karloff held the highest number of votes for her office with 1,637 votes to reinstate the supervisor. Thirty-five percent of this number equals 573.
Karloff has until August 11, 2021 to submit her defense statement before Carritt can begin obtaining signatures. Karloff said she plans to explain her family wasn’t the only person to be contacted about the land.
“The solar company contacted everyone in that area. They made the personal contact with our son to talk about it further,” Karloff said. “Like I said, we were like everyone else, we thought ‘OK, it’s like any mailer you throw it away.’”
This article can also be found on the Wahoo Newspaper's website here.