On Tuesday, May 2nd Elmwood township voters will be asked whether or not to recall Supervisor Deri Smith from her position. We believe the answer is “No.” Deri Smith has always put the interests of all of Elmwood’s citizens first. She has made real progress in a number of important areas, cleaning up the troubled township marina, reorganizing the Planning Commission so that progress can be made on the township’s divisive land use issues, and steering Elmwood away from the embarrassing and expensive legal battles that characterized the previous administration.

If Smith has been so successful, why has a recall campaign been mounted against her? A look at the campaign’s organizers tells a great deal. Chief among them are two officials who were tossed out by voters in the 2004 election: former trustee John Stanek, and ex-supervisor Noel Flohe, whom the Record-Eagle once referred to as a “regional embarrassment.” A recent mailing from the recall group declared its intention to “take back” the township. It seems these former officials, already rejected by the voters once in 2004, are seeking to reverse the results of that election and to seize power by other means. Most of the other organizers are either closely associated with those who lost their cushy positions at the marina, or developers who see Smith as an obstacle to their plans to subdivide the township.

The fact of the matter seems to us to be that Smith is being opposed precisely because she has been making progress in Elmwood. Believe it or not, there are people who want to see the process of drafting a new zoning ordinance fail, or who see the township government primarily as a source of lifetime employment for themselves and their friends. We don’t think that’s what a majority of Elmwood voters want, and we urge them to make their voices heard next Tuesday.

Deri Smith’s opponents are motivated and well-organized. If the decent, public-spirited voters of Elmwood don’t turn out, they will allow a small group of special interests return the township to its bad old days next Tuesday. That would be a shame.