Venue chosen for board appeal

A venue for an appeal filed by three members of the Three Rivers Board of Education targeted in a recall has been selected.
St. Joseph County Circuit Court Judge Paul Stutesman said the State Court Administrator’s Office has assigned the recall petition language case to Judge Gary Giguere Jr. from Kalamazoo County Circuit Court.
The file will be transferred to Giguere promptly and he will take the case from there, Stutesman said.
Stutesman last week said he and judges Jeff Middleton and Rob Pattison have disqualified themselves from hearing the appeal of the St. Joseph County Election Board’s June 26 decision.
The three-member board agreed the language of petitions to recall a trio of Three Rivers Board of Education members showed sufficient clarity in stating the reasons for the recall.
Stutesman and Middleton disqualified themselves due to a conflict of interest with the parties involved. Pattison, meanwhile, doesn’t have time to field the matter within a 40-day time constraint that started when the appeal was filed July 6 by school board members Waneta Truckey, Carl Barth and Mike Bosma.
If Judge Giguere upholds the decision, recall petitions can begin to be circulated. Each recall petition will require the signatures of at least 1,165 people who are registered voters within the school district’s boundaries.