An effort by two residents to give voters in Coachella the chance to remove two city council members from office has cleared its initial hurdle at city hall. The recall drive comes amid ongoing fallout from a controversy over a massive proposed data center that the council recently rejected after initially approving a contract for the project.
The duo behind the recall, Vicente Zamora and Jesus Ahkin Gonzalez, resubmitted the necessary paperwork last week to initiate recalls of Yadira Perez and Denise Delgado. City officials initially rejected the paperwork that would’ve allowed them to begin gathering signatures to put the question on the ballot, saying it lacked the required number of signatures, as well as address info.
A city spokesperson, Jessica Torres, told The Desert Sun on Tuesday, June 23, that the city completed its legal review of the refiled notices of intention and deemed them compliant with California’s election laws. The notices have been sent to the Riverside County Registrar of Voters for signature verification, though it was unclear how long it will take the county’s elections office to review the signatures.
Zamora and Gonzalez first filed the notices of intention against Perez and Delgado in mid-June. When they announced the recall effort, Gonzalez pointed to the council’s support earlier this year for a municipal utility agreement with Stronghold Power Systems Inc. that would have laid the foundation for the company to build a data center. Gonzalez and Zamora were among many residents who organized against the proposal, launching an online petition that drew over 9,000 signatures.
Amid major public pushback against the data center project, the council changed course and opted during a June 4 meeting to cancel its development contract with the company it had hired months ago to build the center. While the move was cheered by some members of the public, Gonzalez said the canceled agreement could cost the city millions of dollars in legal fees. The pair also cited ongoing fiscal challenges facing the city as a reason for their recall attempt.
While Delgado and Perez were most recently elected in 2024, with terms running through 2028, the terms for Mayor Frank Figueroa and Councilmember Stephanie Virgen expire at the end of this year. (Delgado was first elected in 2020, while Perez is in her first term on the council.)
“For Frank Figueroa and Stephanie Virgen, we’re not going to recall you guys, because the voters are going to get a chance to vote on Nov. 3 if you guys decide to run,” Gonzalez told the council during its June 10 meeting.
The council’s fifth member, Juan Martinez, was appointed to his seat June 5, filling a vacancy created when Figueroa was appointed mayor. Earlier, the vacancy in the mayor’s post was created by the March resignation of then-Mayor Steven Hernandez following his guilty plea to a felony conflict-of-interest charge. The seat filled by Martinez, who took no part in any of the prior data center discussions or votes, will also be up for election in November.
Gonzalez and Zamora, who are first cousins and co-hosts of a podcast focused on local political issues that they launched last fall, told The Desert Sun they were motivated to file the paperwork after receiving comments from followers in favor of recalling the council.
However, their efforts have received criticism online from some people, who have questioned whether the recall attempt is politically motivated while noting Gonzalez is the son of former Coachella Mayor Jesus Gonzalez.
The elder Gonzalez, who’s now a board member for the Coachella Valley Unified School District, was indicted on felony bribery and conspiracy charges while serving as mayor in the 1990s. Gonzalez later pleaded guilty to a single, lesser charge, but he has always maintained his innocence, saying the charges were politically motivated.
Asked about whether their recall effort is politically motivated and tied to his family, the younger Gonzalez said such criticisms are “completely fabricated” and pointed back to the data center debate and the city’s fiscal issues as the main reasons driving the recall.
“We just think that this is the right thing to do for the city,” Gonzalez said. “It’s not about me. It’s not about Vicente. It’s not about my father.”
It’s also unclear whether Gonzalez or Zamora might run for office as part of their effort. They declined to comment on whether either of them plans to run for council seats later this year. The filing period opens in mid-July and runs through Aug. 7, though it can be extended by a few days if an incumbent decides not to run.
“Right now, we’re solely focused on the recall,” Gonzalez said. “That’s where we’re spending all of our time.”
Gonzalez and Zamora have said they are aiming to get 4,000 petition signatures to qualify the recalls on the November ballot.
California’s election code requires at least 20% of registered voters to qualify a recall on the ballot. For Coachella, which had 18,701 registered voters in the latest data available, that means roughly 3,740 people would need to sign.
Perez and Delgado will have seven days following the filing of the notice of intention to file an answer (no more than 200 words) in response to the petition, according to California’ election code.
Reached by phone Tuesday, June 23, Perez declined to comment on the recall drive. Delgado did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Tom Coulter covers local government and politics for The Desert Sun. Reach him at thomas.coulter@desertsun.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Amid data center controversy, Coachella recall drive revived
Reporting by Tom Coulter, Palm Springs Desert Sun / Palm Springs Desert Sun
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By Tom Coulter, Palm Springs Desert Sun | USA TODAY Network
