Blue Lake residents gathered at Perigot Park Wednesday evening to mount a recall effort against three city council members. | Photos by Andrew Goff.

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A group of concerned Blue Lake residents gathered in the evening sun at Perigot Park last night to launch a citizen recall effort against three of the town’s city council members, who they believe to be responsible for ousting City Manager Amanda “Mandy” Mager during a closed session meeting on Tuesday.

The council did not announce any official action when it came out of closed session and employees yesterday refused to answer direct questions about Mager’s employment status. Early this afternoon, Blue Lake Finance Manager Dani Burkhart emailed the following statement:

City Manager Amanda “Mandy” Mager and the City Council have mutually decided to end their relationship effective May 9, 2025. The City Council expresses its sincere gratitude to Mandy for her nine-plus years of dedicated service to and leadership of the City of Blue Lake, and the Council wishes her the best in all her future endeavors. An interim City Manager will be appointed while the City conducts a comprehensive recruitment process.

“Please note: The City has no further comment as this is a personnel matter,” Burkhart added in her email.

Last night, as happy children squealed and barbecue smoke wafted across the people seated on picnic tables, Blue Lakers gathered to discuss a plan of action. Politics in this tiny city (pop. 1,172) have grown increasingly rancorous in recent years. Mager’s supporters describe her as the city’s most effective manager in years, if not ever, citing her progressive planning for housing and economic development and various municipal improvement endeavors.

Mager’s critics, meanwhile, allege that she ignored and suppressed public participation while she conspired, deep state-style, with insiders and private developers to accomplish her own agenda. A proposed mixed-use project from Danco has been particularly controversial, and the newly seated council majority recently refused to adopt the city’s updated housing element, risking fines and enforcement actions from the state. 

The latest in a series of letters to the city from the California Department of Housing and Community Development notes that the city is out of compliance with housing element law and warns that noncompliance can lead to ineligibility for state funds, a lawsuit from the Attorney General, financial penalties of up to $100,000 per month, additional fines of up to $50,000 per month and, if noncompliance continues, the loss of local control over when and where very low- to moderate-income housing and emergency shelters are built, via a mechanism called the “Builder’s Remedy.” [Click here to download that letter.]

The town’s political tensions were evident at last night’s gathering. A couple of people opposed to the meeting’s aims interjected and confronted attendees, leading to some tense stand-offs.

Blue Lake resident Dave Ponte (left) confronts former City Councilmember Alexander Ricca as ex-mayor Adelene Jones tries to intervene.

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Charis Bowman, a former city employee, kicked off the meeting by remarking that many in the community do not approve of the council’s recent actions toward Mager. 

“This is my first time stepping in, actually, to a role of … actively fighting for fairness, and what I think happened last night was not fair,” Bowman said.

Ex-mayor Adelene Jones, who lost her recent re-election bid via coin flip, interjected to say the plan should be to target Mayor John Sawatzky, Mayor Pro Tem Elise Scafani and Councilmember Kat Napier — all critics of Mager — in their recall efforts.

“Why? Why?” asked Lori Ponte, a Blue Lake resident who has spoken critically of Mager at recent public meetings. As angry cross-talk erupted, Ponte said she wanted confirmation that Mager has indeed been fired.

A woman named Elissa Rosado offered to answer that. “I’m not asking you!” Ponte replied. But Rosado continued, identifying herself as Mager’s best friend and saying she was indeed terminated and given four months’ severance. Another person said her termination had been verified by a city employee, and Mager is no longer allowed to enter City Hall.

“I work at City Hall,” another person said. “Mandy is no longer there.”

City employees later questioned directly by the Outpost declined to say anything on the record.

Ricca reading a draft letter to Blue Lake City Hall introducing the recall effort.

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The city’s official claim of a mutual decision seems unlikely to dissuade the recall effort. In the park last night, former Blue Lake City Councilmember Alex Ricca read aloud a draft letter for submission to City Hall explaining the justification for the three-pronged recall effort. 

The letter alleges that, after voting in closed session to fire Mager, Sawatzky, Scafani and Napier then “ordered her to vacate her office immediately.” It also accuses the trio of failing to report the council’s closed session action as required by California’s open meetings law, the Ralph M. Brown Act. And it cites the three councilmembers’ vote not to adopt the updated housing element. 

“We need to save ourselves from the political, financial, civic and social consequences of the three aforementioned City Council members’ ill-advised decision,” the letter reads.

Steve Spain.

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Resident Steve Spain passed around a sign-up sheet for supporters, and as loose dogs weaved their way through the crowd’s legs, he explained some of the requirements for a recall election. More than 40 people had put their names and contact info on the sign-up sheet before the meeting broke up.

Lori Ponte and her husband, Dave, elaborated on their opposition to a recall after the meeting. Dave Ponte said the attendees should have verified that Mager had been fired before taking action and added, “There are a lot of questions about how the city has been managed the last couple of years.”

Lori said, “I think it’s unfortunate that we’re doing this instead of trying to come together and find a solution.”

Lori Ponte (right) holds a copy of the draft letter while engaging in debate with meeting attendees.

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As the meeting was winding down, some attendees spotted Sawatzky and Scafani Napier huddled in discussion with a few other folks at the outskirts of the crowd. As I approached and introduced myself, Scafani Napier vamoosed in the opposite direction, and others wandered away, leaving only me and Sawatzky behind. [CORRECTION: This post initially misidentified Napier as Scafani, as evidenced by the strikethroughs. The Outpost regrets the error.]

When I asked if he could confirm that Mager was no longer employed by the city, he took a step backwards, raised his hands in a defensive gesture and glanced toward the retreating figure of Scafani Napier.

“I can’t, uh, we’re not commenting on that,” he said.

I reminded him that the Brown Act requires California legislative bodies to report any actions taken in closed session.

“Sorry, guy. I apologize,” he said. He then asked for my name and contact information, and after an awkward silence he said, “Yeah. How’s your life?”

I said it was going alright, though I was confused about why nobody was willing to confirm or deny that Mager was still employed by the city. Again, Sawatzky took a step back and raised his hands. 

“I don’t want to talk to the press right now,” he said. “I apologize.”

Meeting attendee Eric Hall holds a handmade recall sign.

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Reached by the Outpost, Humboldt County Clerk-Recorder and Registrar of Voters Juan Pablo Cervantes said he has serious concerns about Blue Lake’s ability to manage a recall election without a city manager or a city clerk. (The city is in the process of recruiting candidates for the latter position.)

“They’re a pivotal, functional part of this [recall] process,” Cervantes said. “I imagine that, if the city council is interested, they will be requesting support from the county on it.”

He explained that each recall election must be its own separate thing. “That means separate Notices of Intention, separate petitions, and separate rounds of signature gathering and verification,” he explained in a follow-up email. “If all qualify, one election could be held with separate recall questions for each official.”

The first step is for one or more registered voters to serve a Notice of Intention to Recall for each of the three targeted councilmembers, accompanied by a 200-word-or-less statement of the reason for recall and at least 30 signatures from local registered voters. The notice must be served to the city clerk (again, a position that’s currently vacant in Blue Lake) and published in a local paper. 

Another requirement for the recall is that proponents must gather valid, verifiable signatures from at least 30 percent of the city’s registered voters, which amounts to somewhere around 252, according to Cervantes. The city clerk submits those to the county’s Elections Office, and if the signature threshold is met then the city council must call an election within 14 days. That election must then be held between 88 and 125 days after it’s called, or up to 180 days later if it lines up with a regularly scheduled election.

Does that mean the recall could happen this November? It’s possible, Cervantes said, but since this is an off year, elections-wise, there likely won’t be countywide ballots printed in Humboldt County, in which case Blue Lake wouldn’t save money by consolidating its recall with a county election.

A recall election would likely cost the City of Blue Lake between $9,000 and $12,000, Cervantes said, adding that his estimate factors in the tariff-driven rise in paper costs.

The Outpost was unable to reach Mager for comment. 


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