Councilor Garfield: Hagen Can’t Be Mayor Anymore

Garfield: Hagen's Statement Is Not An Apology

While councilor Graham Garfield continued to get slammed with all types of phone calls and e-mails Wednesday – both locally and even from around the country – he told FOX 21’s Dan Hanger there’s absolutely no way Hagen can stay in office after issuing the “final” statement.

Garfield says the statement was not at all an apology.

He says the council will now look at options to remove Hagen if he doesn’t step down after he gets back in a month from vacation.

“There wasn’t a controversy before three days ago and he created one and so now when we look at his leadership ability, he hasn’t done anything to help foster support for our city and make it look good and he has actually caused a lot of problems now that we have to fix,” Garfield said.

Meanwhile, while city councilors maul over what they plan to do with Mayor Hagen going forward, one thing was for sure Wednesday – a recall election looked very real.

The last time a recall happened to a mayor in Superior was July 2000 for Margaret Ciccone.

The city Clerk’s Office says 2,071 signatures would be needed to trigger a recall election.

However, Wisconsin law states the process and signatures can’t begin until at least one year after a mayor takes office.

So, in Mayor Hagen’s case, that wouldn’t be until at least April 2016 because he just started his fifth term in April 2015.

And even when the signatures are received, there’s an authorization and appeals process – meaning Hagen isn’t going anywhere any time soon.

But Councilor Garfield said Wednesday the City Council has the authority to vote to remove Hagen from office – something Garfield believes very well could happen if Hagen doesn’t rethink everything and step down when he returns from vacation in a month.