ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo–A recall election of an entire North St. Louis County fire protection district board will move forward in November after a judge Thursday dismissed a lawsuit challenging petition signatures that qualified the election for the ballot.

The three members of the Robertson Fire Protection District Board, Chair Joan Noel, Secretary Mike Conley and Treasurer Becky Reinsmith, were among the plaintiffs in a suit filed against the St. Louis County Board of Elections, claiming that enough voters who signed the original recall petition later claimed “misrepresentation and/or fraud”. The number of people who asked that their signatures be withdrawn would have put the petition below the legal threshold needed to authorize the recall vote, according to the complaint.

Election officials supported the move to resolve the issue in court.

“Nowhere in the statutory scheme of Chapter 321 is an obligation imposed on the Board to look beyond the genuineness of the signatures to examine the intent and motivations of those voluntarily signing documents titled, “Petition for the Recall of Director of the Robertson Fire Protection District””, Circuit Court Judge Dean Waldemer ruled Thursday in dismissing the suit with prejudice.

The ruling pointed to the fact that election officials rejected “a significant number of petition signatures,” because they came from people who weren’t registered to vote in St. Louis County in the district, which covers portions of Hazelwood, Bridgeton and unincorporated St. Louis County.

Election authorities don’t have much more power than that under state law, Waldemer said and would have violated state statutes had they investigated the petitions after the fact or allowed voters to remove signatures.

Jennifer Guyton, leader of a concerned citizens group which has been at odds with the district and is now a candidate in the recall election, told Spectrum News a countersuit against the board will move forward. Guyton claims board members knew that election officials didn’t have the legal authority to decertify the recall election but moved forward with the lawsuit anyway. The countersuit also claims board members enlisted fire district personnel in a campaign to undermine the recall vote by making false claims of fraud.

“This was a case of defamation, abuse of process and a violation of our civil rights. We have a constitutional right to petition the government for grievances. That same government doesn't have a right to obstruct it because they are afraid of what the voters will decide,” Guyton told Spectrum News by email.

"The Robertson Board of Directors is disappointed with the Court’s decision but respects the Court interpretation.  Unfortunately, the statute gave very little guidance to the parties and the Court," attorney Charles Billings told Spectrum News in an email Friday morning. Billings did not comment on the countersuit but reiterated the board member's belief that voters were misled when they signed the petition.  

The district has been in a protracted legal fight with the city of Hazelwood since 2017, when the city canceled its contract, citing excessive costs and mismanagement by Robertson’s board. The district filed a breach of contract suit in 2018 which remains unresolved today while Hazelwood continues to make annual payments. The city has claimed that the agreement, which in 2021 still cost Hazelwood more than $4 million, is one reason why Chapter 9 bankruptcy could be “inevitable”, Mayor Matt Robinson told residents in an open letter in June.