Judge gives Salem man more time to remedy legal action against officials

One of the big items Matish found missing: Truex never spelled out the “prayer,” or specific request of relief, sought from the court.

Truex also will have to go before a notary and swear and affirm all the allegations made in his complaint are true and correct before filing the amended petition.

After all that’s done, the judge then will give Lisa Furbee Ford, city attorney for Salem, time to file a response, and likely schedule another hearing.

Following Wednesday’s court appearance, Truex acknowledged a recall election for council members Laurie McKowen, Israel Williams, Bobby Knight and Doug Fischer likely no longer is in the cards. That’s because of a timing issue with the city’s regular election in June.

The goal now is to get the court to examine what Truex believes were “stonewalling” tactics by the city that delayed the recall election to the point that the timing issue came into play, Truex said Wednesday.

Furbee Ford wouldn’t respond to the allegation about “stonewalling” from Truex. But she previously filed a strongly worded response on behalf of Salem City Manager Joe Davis and City Clerk Kayla Lowther contending they followed the city’s charter to the letter in the matter.

The original filing by Truex was a petition for writ of prohibition and mandamus. That’s considered “extraordinary” relief from the courts, is a very high standard to meet and likely doesn’t apply now unless the court would somehow believe a recall election could be held.

However, the court could opt to reconfigure the case to some other course of action that could apply, should it consider the matter suitable for review.